The eco Capital Office is – geographically as well as functionally – in close contact to the Berlin Members of Parliament. In addition, the colleagues there encourage dialog on Internet-related topics, through events like the eco polITalk. Dr. Sandra Schulz, Head of the eco Policy and Law Department, explains in interview what the participants in the Quadriga Forum on 14 October can expect.
Dr. Schulz, in the announcement for the polITalk, eco explains that the Digital Agenda means “the entry into a new Internet and network policy” for the Internet industry. Why is that so?
The central challenge in the digitalization of society is to achieve a basic common consensus on the shaping on Internet and network policy. Behind this hides the sociopolitical question: What kind of an Internet do we want to live in or with?
The Digital Agenda is an important first step towards this. The German Federal Government has presented for the first time a complete cross-disciplinary and consistent concept on Internet and network policy. Finally, strategic value has been placed on digitalization and the Internet. I am delighted that the responsible State Secretaries from both the Ministry for the Interior and the Ministry for the Economy will be sitting on the podium for the polITalk.
Do you have the impression that the understanding of the Internet has improved among the representatives since the last election?
Both the last and the current legislative sessions have seen net-policy experts in the German Parliament and in the ministries. The newly created committee for the Digital Agenda means that we now have an independent committee in Federal Parliament. Perhaps not yet a leading position, but it is taking on more and more cross-disciplinary topics and is in demand as an expert committee. The members that we have visited are highly motivated and are interested in the questions and answers about a sustainable Internet policy.
It is clear to us that not least since the surveillance scandal last year, many politicians have developed a new awareness of Internet and network policy topics and issues. We see it as our task as the Association of the German Internet Industry to encourage an understanding for the functionality of the digital market and the importance of network policy framework conditions in politics in Berlin, and to campaign for the maintenance of a free and open Internet.
How do you assess the network policy plans of the new EU Commission President, and what tasks should the new European Digital Commissioner Günther Oettinger be tackling right away?
It is already a great advantage for European network policy that the new EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has given the digital economy a strong weighting and has set the topic “Digital” right at the top of the political agenda. His Vice-President, Andrus Ansip from Estonia, will be responsible for the implementation for the digital single market. The creation of a digital single market should therefore become a central intention of the new Commission. In addition, in Günther Oettinger, we now have an EU Commissioner for “Digital Economy and Society”. These new posts are an important signal that the Internet industry is being perceived as a key sector for the entire economy.
In our view, the European Union must now tackle three topics rapidly: Firstly, the consistent continuation of the idea of a regulatory framework for a harmonized digital single market which supports market diversity and fair conditions for competition. Secondly, the rapid adoption of a Basic Regulation on Data Protection which creates a harmonized level of data protection for the entire area of data processing in Europe. And thirdly, a clear rejection of a re-introduction of Blanket Data Retention. On this last point, I am pleased to note that Oettinger professed his agreement, as he announced during his hearing last week at the European Parliament the intention to launch infringement proceedings against member states that continue to obligate telecommunications operators to retain telecommunication data after the April verdict on Blanket Data Retention.