Today, March 30, the ECOFIN had its first meeting. After the President and the Secretary General made a brief introduction for the following days, the Ministers delivered introductory statements and expressed their formal positions.
All Ministers were generally in favour of the Digital Single Market, but there were some Ministers expressing certain concerns. For instance, the importance of a common tax policy was underlined by the Ministers of Austria and Belgium and the matter of cyber-security was brought up by the Ministers of Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovakia. As a whole, the majority of Ministers agreed on the DSM being a great opportunity for the economic development, the prosperity of the citizens of Europe and the promotion of the integration of the European Market despite the challenges.
During the Open Debate, it was mentioned that some countries that are ranked low regarding their digitalisation progress may need assistance by other Member States that are more technologically advanced. The Minister of Cyprus stated that the common taxation policy is of not of vital importance,while the unity of the Member States should be further promoted and the needs of the less technologically developed countries should be considered. Opposing opinions were expressed by the Minister of Romania that underlined the need for a reformed tax system and the Minister of Netherlands that emphasised on the tax system being means to the EU gaining financial benefit from multinational companies.
On the topic of the importance of the integration of the DSM, the Ministers of France, Croatia and Cyprus emphasised on the economic prospect that shall derive from DSM. It was agreed, after several mentions on the issue of cyber-security, that emphasis should be more on the importance of the strategy rather than the challenges that will be faced, as stated by the Minister of Germany. On the topic of the challenges of the implementation of the DSM, the differences in technological development between the Member States were the issue most mentioned. It was stated by the Ministers of Germany, France, Greece, Romania and Cyprus that the digital expertise gap between Member States should be reduced. Additionally, restrictions on copyright and new technologies as well as the lack of data exchanges between the Member States were also discussed. Finally, on the topic of social benefits of the DSM, it was agreed by most participating Ministers that even though the digitalisation of industry has eliminated certain job fields, new ones have been created. The Minister of Greece proposed the establishment of an educational framework in order to further promote the DSM and the Minister of Belgium underlined the importance of familiarisation with technology. As she explained, we may focus on youth unemployment but young people, “the future of Europe” according to the Minister of Slovenia, are already familiar with technology, thus, primarily older people should be assisted to adjust to the digital era. The U.K. , having already stated that they will be pursuing cooperation with the EU on matters of economy despite the BREXIT, the Digital Market included, stated that digitalisation is the future, regardless of the EU acts.
This was the concluding point of the meeting and now we are looking forward to the next session as the correlation of the DSM and the common taxation policy will be discussed.
By Erofili Smyrniotaki.
