The Commission's Digital Agenda

Among the tools for improving the quality of regulation, e-gov is often mentioned as one of the most powerful. With this in mind, BR experts should take a look at the Commission communication on the Digital Agenda, published 19 May, as it concerns the infrastructure and standards of the building blocks of e-gov.This programme is one of the seven flagship initiatives of the EU2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Of particular interest to us is the digital single market component. There is still a lot to do to de-fragment national digital markets, for instance by creating a single legal download solution for music. Europeans would also greatly benefit from improved cross-border on-line shopping. This could have significant impacts on the simplicity and enforcement of EU law: until now, dealing with red tape of 27 digital markets has prevented many companies from expanding across borders. There is a lively debate going on at present on the possible contribution of this strategy, see for instance the Euractiv page as entry point.