Seeing the Forest for the Tree

With a range of initiatives already started or still in the blocks, the Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy of May 2015 has ambitions to connect Europe’s 28 digital markets, to make the EU a world leader in information and communication technologies, and to provide adequate levels of protection to European citizens and consumers in the digital age. Efforts to move forward on the EU’s Digital Agenda have sparked vibrant debates over the potential role of the U.S. government and of U.S. companies in the “digital future” of the continent. In their respective articles, Robert Atkinson and Andrea Renda take a look at how digitalization is being addressed by the European Union. While one examines the contradictory goals that the EU might be pursuing with its current strategy, the other takes a look at possible areas of agreement with the United States in regulating digital markets in the EU. Indeed, when it comes to understanding how Europeans might become leaders in digital industries, transatlantic views are needed on how the European Union might come to embrace disruptive innovations, might create EU-wide spectrum markets, might encourage or limit consolidation among broadband providers, might take advantage of public-private partnerships, and might regulate platforms and geo-blocking of digital content. Current discussions over data protection, data privacy, data retention, e-commerce, copyright, platforms, etc. are laying the pipes of new economies and societies across the continent. If the Digital Single Market strategy is to be Europe’s gateway toward the digital age, if it is to be a strategic tool for the future of European economic integration first, and transatlantic economic integration second, then it must feed into the EU’s initiatives toward a global strategy.