Blog: Getting the European Commission together on digital - Hoofdinhoud

Joining forces to build a #DigitalSingleMarket

Tomorrow I have invited 13 European Commissioners to discuss how to work together and build a truly connected #DigitalSingleMarket. This is the kick-off for five years of working together so it's very important: firstly that we get going as a team, and secondly, that we get things right.

You may wonder why I asked so many people along - nearly half of all the Commissioners. That’s because digital is everywhere, stretching into all aspects of our lives. Some areas obviously need to be represented: regional policy, internal market, competition, trade and consumer policy, for example.

Others may be less obvious. Take agriculture: as far as digital is concerned, this means the rural development part of the Common Agricultural Policy. This is really important, because it can be used to connect people in remote non-urban areas across the European Union - hilltop farmers on a Greek island, a fishing village in northern Scotland, a mountain community in the Austrian Alps - and make sure they have reliable and high-quality internet access. It can give them access to quality online services as well as help them to develop their own online presence. This is a basic requirement for everyone in the 21st century.

Or the financial services sector, another key policy area for the Digital Single Market (DSM) and where we need to make online financial transactions more widespread in Europe.

You know how much trust and confidence in the online world matter to me, as I'm sure they do for you. So naturally I also invited the Commissioners responsible for civil rights and social issues, because trust and confidence are issues that we will need to address, in internet usage and e-commerce, among other areas.

So what happens now? The clock is ticking, because I have committed to drawing up a plan for the future of the DSM within six months - and that means May 2015. Given the scale of the challenge and the coordination involved, it’s not a long time at all. Today we are only in the second week of this European Commission. But there is absolutely no time to lose.

I have divided our joint work into several themed areas that will involve the participation of several Commissioners. We all have to work closely together, because the timetable is very tight. This is the aim of Wednesday's meeting: to look back at what has been achieved, how best to move forward and then how to do this on a practical basis so that we work as efficiently as we can. And produce results.

I’ll let you know how the meeting went later in the week.

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