Press Release: Digital Agenda: €110bn jackpot on offer for completing e-Communications Single Market

Too many barriers still block the free flow of online services and entertainment across national borders. The Digital Agenda will update EU Single Market rules for the digital era. The aims are to boost the music download business, establish a single area for online payments, and further protect EU consumers in cyberspace.

The European Commission released a study in February 2012 that showed if the internal market for electronic communications were completed the EU gross domestic product (GDP) could grow by up to €110bn euros a year, or more than 0.8% of GDP.

e-Communications is a critical part of overall efforts to build a digital Single Market. This 'digital bonus' for EU growth would result from more competition, increased economies of scale for telecom operators, and the chance for every European to access all online content and services throughout the EU, such as music, movies and video games.

The study was carried out by an international team of experts and academics. It suggests three main types of policy measures to tackle obstacles:

* reduced regulatory fragmentation (e.g. common rules on contract duration and transparency of bills)
* more European standardisation (to allow pan-European services of assured quality to emerge in areas such as e-Health, e-Energy, e-Mobility)
* the need for more coordination of the activities of national telecoms regulators at EU level

E!Sharp, March 2012: A digital single market by 2015? http://esharp.eu/debates/the-digital-economy/europe-and-its-digital-single-market

European Commission: Information Society: Digital Agenda: Digital Single Market http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/pillar.cfm

---