EU sets data plan to catch up with US tech giants

The European Commission plans to create a single European market for data, hoping that pooling the region’s deep industrial expertise will help build technology powerhouses to catch up with Silicon Valley and state-backed Chinese heavyweights.

The plan proposed by the commission is part of a digital market policy shake-up that also includes steps to rein in the data controlling powers of companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

Having lagged the first wave of digital innovation, particularly in consumer markets such as social media, online shopping, and smartphones, the EU is keen to make up lost ground and avoid its firms relying on data from US and Asian rivals.

It is hoping that tapping into the trove of industrial data held by companies such as Germany’s Siemens and France’s Alstom could push Europe to the forefront of the next wave of innovation as machines and industrial processes are connected up via the so-called internet of things.

“The battle for industrial data starts now and Europe will be the main battlefield. Europe has the largest industrial base. The winners of today will not be the winners of tomorrow,” EU industry chief Thierry Breton told a news conference. He said a key element of the plan would be the creation of an EU cloud platform alliance, with the EU hoping to mobilise up to €2bn for this. He did not give details of how the platform would work.

A final draft of its proposals, following feedback from interested parties, is expected by the end of the year. The plans come alongside moves by some EU countries to introduce digital taxes on major US tech companies, steps condemned by Washington as tantamount to protectionism.

Other elements in the commission’s proposals include new rules covering cross-border data use, data interoperability and standards for manufacturing, climate change, the auto industry, healthcare, financial services, agriculture, and energy.

One possibly controversial proposal calls for doing away with EU rules against anti-competitive data sharing. There is also a goal for data centres to be climate neutral by 2030.