PRESS RELEASE - DIGITALEUROPE supports Member States’ call to end data localisation

DIGITALEUROPE welcomes the call from the majority of Member States for the European Commission to immediately put forth a legislative proposal eliminating unjustified data localisation requirements across the EU.

“We need the Commission to be ambitious,” said John Higgins, Director General of DIGITALEUROPE. “The free movement of data within the EU is in the interest of us all. Data localisation and Member State protectionism is not the answer,” he added.

Governments from the EU’s 28 Member States met today in Brussels to discuss the European Commission’s stalled ‘free flow of data initiative’ during the Transport, Telecoms and Energy Council meeting. Setting out their views during a working lunch, the majority of Member States expressed the need for the European Commission to table legislation as soon as possible.

“The views of the majority of Member States show that this is legislation that is needed to secure the Single Market for data,” stated Mr Higgins. “We commend the Slovak Presidency in placing this important topic on today’s busy Council agenda,” expressed Mr Higgins.

The ‘free flow of data initiative’ was outlined in the European Commission’s 2015 Digital Single Market (“DSM”) Strategy as the way to tackle unnecessary restrictions on the free movement of data within the EU. The European Commission’s original plans for a legislative proposal set to be published in January 2017 have now been reduced to a Communication.

“This initiative is one of the cornerstones of the EU’s DSM strategy. Without the free movement of data, the entire DSM project will fail,” warned Mr Higgins.