Amid high expectations of growing investment by EU companies in Korea in the run-up to the entry into force of the Korea-EU FTA, scheduled on July 1 this year, Lee Kark-bum, Chairman of the President's Council on Information Strategies gave a lecture on the content of the EU's plan for a digital economy and suggestions at a breakfast meeting, which was hosted by the Information Technology Professionals' Association of Korea (IPAK) on May 11. As the expanding EU, the world's largest single market, is serving as one of the main props of the global economy, it is actively embracing digitalization. Yet its aging population and fiercer international competition are a drag on the EU's endeavor to transition into a digital economy. Therefore, to address this issue, the EU has come up with an alternative that is focused on "working harder", "working longer" and "working smarter". Though working harder and longer is important, the EU has put a higher premium on working smarter. Accordingly, the EU is carrying out projects like Europe 2020 and Digital Agenda for Europe.
Europe 2020, a 10-year growth strategy proposed by the European Commission in March 2010 for reviving the economy of the EU, is aimed at "smart, sustainable, inclusive growth" with greater coordination of national and European policy. Digital Agenda for Europe, a key component of Europe 2020, covers action plans to remove seven obstacles to the EU's efforts for a digital economy. However, there are hurdles to the EU evolving into a digital economy: a fragmented digital market, a lack of interpretability, growth in cybercrime, weak ties among member nations, insufficient investment in networks and R&D, low levels of digital technology utilization and different approaches towards social issues.
The EU's action plan for a digital economy
For a start, the EU is pressing ahead with building an EU digital single market to jump over obstacles to forming a digital economy. Along with efforts to streamline the management and approval of copyrights and cross board licensing procedures, the EU is working hard toward creating a single euro payment area by co-opting non-EU member nations including the UK. In addition, efforts are underway to set up an EU regulatory framework for data protection, resolve EU-wide online disputes, and coordinate the technical and regulatory environments for frequency usage in line with the ESPP (the EU's policy on frequency usage). Second, the EU is reinforcing interoperability and standards: legal measures for ICT interoperability aimed at reforming the EU's ICT standard implementation rules are being suggested and rules such as ex-ante disclosure are being drawn up to hammer out common standards. To enhance interoperability, the EU has adopted the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), a set of recommendations which specify how administrations, businesses and citizens communicate with each other within the EU and across member states borders. Third, EU is stepping up information security and trust building. This is about forming emergency computer response teams to scale up emergency preparedness and about improving policies for networks and information security. An EU cybercrime platform has been set up to conduct feasibility studies on EU cybercrime centers. And international coordination for strengthening global risk management and EU-wide emergency exercises against cybercrime are also underway. On top of that, the EU is poised to implement a new communications framework to protect personal information and support centers for fighting against illegal online content.
Investing in high-speed Internet infrastructures is something that cannot be omitted. As aforementioned, the EU has adopted an EU Broadband Communication to achieve the goals of Europe 2020. And the EU has provided funds for high-speed broadband and issued recommendations on network investment such as ESPP (the EU's policy on frequency usage). As for investment in R&D and innovative investment, the EU will increase private investment through public-private partnerships and boost cooperation for resource procurement and coordination among member nations. Ways to help more SMEs and young R&D talent to tap into EU R&D funds are being thrashed out; joint ICT research and financial assistance for innovative clusters are in the pipeline; and EU governments and science circles are establishing strategies for cloud computing. "In particular, the EU's innovative investment is centered on the "life" sector", said Chairman Kark Bum Lee. Chairman Lee explained that the EU's population aging led to a growing interest in health, disease prevention and anti-aging sciences. Its graying population is also behind a strong emphasis on infomatization and convergence of life sciences.
What's more, the EU is pushing for digital technology utilization and expanded participation in ICT. As the task of making the less developed Eastern European countries digital-savvy has emerged as one of the major tasks, the EU is pouring money into education on utilizing digital technologies, web-based education exercises and online consumer education on new media technologies, so as to ramp up ICT participation.
Above all, the EU's effort to address social issues through ICT stands out. The centerpiece of the EU's ICT utilization is to reduce energy demand. As for smart grids, efforts to cut down on energy supply and CO2 emissions are being made. Besides, the EU has decided to carry out pilot projects for medical record digitalization until 2015 and fully implement remote medical services by 2020. In addition, the EU will present recommendations on how to keep patient records to enable the interoperability of patient records among EU member nations. And the EU will spur up EU-wide standard tests and interoperability tests. Furthermore, the issuance of e-health system certificates and the Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme (AAL JP), designed to help the elderly and disabled, will be given more support.
Chairman Lee said, "The EU is making a huge investment in building intellectual infrastructures." A case in point is the opening of an EU public digital library by digitalizing each EU member nation's intellectual and cultural heritages. This EU public digital library will serve as the epitome of digitizing intellectual systems. Life in the 21st century cannot be described without the culture and creation industries. Therefore, the EU is setting out growth plans in this sector. The EU has announced recommendations to speed up digitalization and urged member nations to implement Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), a set of rules and regulations for the electronic media that replaces the previous Television without Frontiers Directive (TVWF). On the other hand, the EU is pushing for globalizing Internet governance as part of international efforts for agenda implementation. At the same time, it is offering full support to maintain the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), so the EU is expected to exercise greater clout in the global market by building a digital economy in tandem with technological advances.
