Policy and regulatory techniques to build the digital single market

• Author: Hocepied, Christian; Streel, Alexandre de
• Pages: 13-18

Contribution to Growth: European Digital Single Market

PE 638.395 13

2. POLICY AND REGULATORY TECHNIQUES TO BUILD THE

DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET

The Digital Single Market Strategy relies on different regulatory and non-regulatory techniques.

Legislation appears to be, by far, the privileged approach. The ‘acquis’ is impressive and will still require

many years to be fully implemented because implementation in practice often require periods longer

than a Parliament legislature. The number of Commission Communications reflects the absence of

executive powers at EU level. Instead of launching specific projects – which the Commission

successfully did for example for the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information (EESSI) – the

Commission is obliged to promote best practices and general principles, without certainty of effective

results. Another finding is that the Digital Single Market cannot be forced through a top down

approach.

Public private partnerships, test projects and other research networks play a key role in developing

applications that will give a face to the concept of digital and show its benefi ts.

KEY FINDINGS

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 adoption 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 practi ces across the Member States are also common.

Finally, increasing amount of EU funds have been allocated to digital initiatives.