Executive summary

• Author: Hocepied, Christian; Streel, Alexandre de
• Pages: 6-10

IPOL | Policy Department for Economic, Scientifi c and Quality of Life Policies

6 PE 638.395

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In May 2015, the European Commission launched a very ambitious agenda to strengthen the Digital

Single Market (DSM) for Europe that led to a very intense activity of the European Parliament in this

field during the 8th legislature (2014-2019). This Study analyses (ii) the barriers eliminated or reduced

by specific DSM legislative measures, (ii) the specific rights and obligations as well as the legal

institutions or procedures introduced or improved by those measures and (iii) the remaining gaps and

possible actions for the forthcoming Parliament’s l egislature. The Annex lists all the specific legislative

measures adopted during the 8th legislature.

The Study is organised as follows: (i) the first section explains the policy techniques used by the EU

institutions to stimulate the DSM (how it was achieved), (ii) the second section reviews the different

measures adopted in the main building blocks of the DSM, the rights and obligation they have

established and the barriers to the internal market they have removed (what was achieved) and (iii) the

third section proposes future reforms for the next Parliamentary legislature.

1. Policy and regulatory techniques to achieve the Digital Single Market

The EU institutions may rely on diverse policy techniques to build the Digital Single Market and

remove barriers to trade between Member States. Some techniques are regulatory and aim, on the one

hand, to unify or harmonise across the EU the substantive rules and, on the other hand, to unify or

harmonise the enforcement of those rules. Other techniques are non-regulatory and rely on action

plans, policy benchmarking or financial support.

EU unification and harmonisation of the substantive rules can be achieved with hard law, in

particular Regulations that are directly applicable or Directives that need to be transposed into national

law. They can also be stimulated with the soft-law, in particular with Recommendations or Guidelines

giving interpretation of existing EU laws or recommending particular approach in national laws or with

Codes of conduct or Memorandum of Understanding to involve more closely stakeholders in the

elaboration of the rules (participatory regulation). In the digital field, Regulations have been used

extensively and represent a higher proportion of legislative acts than in other EU policy fields. In

addition, several Recommendations and Guidelines have been adopted to ensure a common

interpretation of those rules. Finally, multiple Codes of conduct were agreed by the industry to

supplement or substitute the adopti on of hard-law.

However, common EU rules are not enough to achieve the single market if those rules are implemented

by national authorities differently across the Member States. This is why many institutional and

procedural rules are needed to unify or harmonise across the EU the enforcement mechanisms.

They should respect the constitutional and procedural autonomy of the Member States. In the digital

field, many procedural rules were adopted to improve the quality of the national enforcement

agencies as well as their cooperation at the EU level, in particular through the establishment or the

strengthening of EU networks of agencies.

Next to rules, non-regulatory actions are also key to stimulate the single market, in particular in area

where the adoption of legislation is difficult or not appropriate. In the digital field, numerous policy

action plans were adopted to coordinate EU and national digital policies. Benchmarking of national

digital policies to diffuse best practices across the Member States are also common. Finally, increasing

amount of EU funds have been allocated to digital initiatives.