From the Digital Single Market to a Single Market Ready for Tomorrow’s Needs

In May 2015, the European Commission presented its Communication on the Digital Single Market Strategy. Whereas this strategy has a strong consumer focus, for us, the digitalisation of industry, often referred to as the 'Industrial Internet of Things', will be a key driver for European economies in the coming years. This is why we would like to comment on a number of aspects that are of particular importance for us and that were covered or touched upon by the Digital Single Market Strategy as well as to prepare the way for the forthcoming proposals on the Internal Market for Products and Services.

We are committed to providing our active input to this debate, as we believe that, with the Energy Union, the forthcoming Internal Market for Products and Services and the Circular Economy, the Digital Single Market is one of the core pillars, which if it is well-designed and part of a connected and coherent policy approach will contribute towards achieving overall jobs and growth, the core objective of the present Commission.

Orgalime’s industry, with its output of 1825 billion euro in 2014 and 10.3 million employed in Europe, does attach significant importance to the development of the Digital Single Market which is integrated with all other policy areas being developed by the present Commission.

Orgalime also firmly believes that the jobs and growth objective of the present Commission must be at the core of the policy thinking and regulatory framework derived from the Digital Single Market.

In the present paper therefore:

• We provide our comments on the Digital Single Market
• We outline the main issues which from an industrial perspective need to be considered, most probably in the forthcoming Internal Market for Products and Services
• We include an annex with our main position papers related to the above issues