INTRODUCTION

The creation of a Digital Single Market is an important objective of the European Union (EU); a basic concretisation of this objective can be seen in the Commission's proposition for a ‘Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe’, presented on 6 May 2015 This Communication is based on the acknowledgement that the EU needs liberalised digital facilities encompassing better online-access for consumers and businesses and addressing crossborder e-commerce rules that are trustworthy Apart from specific topics, the Commission proposes to create the right conditions and a level playing field for advanced digital networks and innovative services In addition, trust and security in the handling of personal data are to be improved.

However, the main objective of the Digital Single Market Strategy of the Commission consists in strengthening the digital ecosystem and overcoming market fragmentation In this context, two elements are of major importance, namely (i) building a data economy (big data, cloud services, Internet of Things) that is likely to increase the competitiveness of the EU industry, and (ii) boosting wealth maximisation through interoperability and standardisation based on innovative technologies Obviously, a stable and foreseeable legal framework for digital services is a desirable cornerstone of the single market concept, but a parallel framework for cross-border data flow should also be implemented in order to equally satisfy data privacy requests.

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a cornerstone of the European data protection effort Data protection should no longer be viewed by enterprises as a negative factor but as ‘an essential competitive advantage’ in the Digital Single Market, which aims at adding up to € 415 billion per year to Europe's economy Correspondingly, data protection principles need to be embedded into the Digital Single Market Strategy.

Public consultations are currently ongoing in respect of a wide range of issues relating to the Digital Single Market Their aim is to ascertain the concerns that citizens as well as enterprises might have, and to adjust the Strategy and the corresponding legal instruments accordingly The implementation is to be expected in 2017.