(…) We need action (…) Action on ensuring our own defence and security; action on growing our economies and ensuring our competitiveness; … action on tackling crippling bureaucracy; action on red-tape and over-regulation
Ursula von der Leyen, re-elected President of the European Commission (EC) for the 2024-2029 term, set out her strategic vision for this new mandate in her Political Guidelines in July 2024. In September, she presented the official list of Commissioners-designate to support its implementation.
Each Commissioner has received a mission letter from the President of the EC. These letters set out the specific priorities and responsibilities of the Commissioners in line with the EC’s broader objectives, which include strengthening economic security, competitiveness, and regional cohesion. This mandate is expected to start in December 2024, once the Commissioners-designate have been approved by the European Parliament after a series of hearings.
Cooperation between the European Parliament (EP) and the Commission will be key to fulfilling the mandates in the mission letters. In this context and aligned with the EC vision, the President of the EP, Roberta Metsola, outlined her vision for EU competitiveness at the informal European Council in Budapest.
Which mission letters will shape the future of the telecommunications sector?
The mission letters are an essential tool for defining the roadmap for each Commissioner’s work and monitoring their progress. In the telecommunications sector, these letters set clear priorities that aim to foster a regulatory and competition policy framework, driving the development of digital infrastructure and accelerating innovation and the digital transition.
Specifically, the mission letters addressed to Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for the Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition (see previous post on the new approach to competition policy); Henna Virkkunnen, Executive Vice-President for Technology Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy; and Valdis Dombrovskis, Commissioner for Economy, Productivity, Implementation, and Simplification, will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the European digital sector.
The new structure of the EC is more interlinked than ever and requires all Commissioners and services to work more closely together towards the common goal of competitiveness and seeking coherence of action, as recommended by Letta’s and Draghi’s reports.
Mission Letter to Virkkunnen: shaping a competitive, resilient and inclusive digital future
Your task (…) shaping a competitive, resilient and inclusive digital future. (…) attain leadership in strategic technologies, (…) to establish assets for technological sovereignty and resilience, and to foster (…) deep tech innovation
Virkkunen is tasked with driving Europe’s digital transformation, focusing on strengthening technological sovereignty, security, and democracy, while overseeing the development of digital and frontier technologies, such as supercomputing, semiconductors, internet of things, etc.
Specifically, she will oversee the Digital Decade 2030 goals and their review in 2026 with the aim to addressing emerging tech challenges. Artificial Intelligence policy remains also a core focus. Virkkunnen will be responsible for promoting safer Artificial Intelligence (AI) and supporting innovation through initiatives such as AI Factories, to be launched within her first 100 days to provide AI start-ups and industry with supercomputing capacity.
Cybersecurity is another priority. Efforts will be focused on advancing European cybersecurity certification schemes and creating a targeted cybersecurity plan for healthcare. She will also work with a first-year focus to assess, facilitate and simplify digital compliance for SMEs and small midcaps.
In addition, Virkkunen will oversee the development of the EU Cloud and AI Development Act, a unified cloud policy for public administration, and the Digital Networks Act to boost connectivity. She will ensure the effective enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act for fair markets, while also contributing to anti-disinformation efforts under the European Democracy Shield.
Furthermore, she is tasked to promote the digital public infrastructure through the EU Wallet, present a EU Data Union Strategy to facilitate large-scale data sharing, and establish a long-term EU Quantum Chips plan. Finally, she will address new tech and market challenges, improving the copyright framework and tackling unethical techniques online or cyberbulling.
Mission letter to Dombrovskis: a dual role in seeking greater coordination and regulatory simplification
We need to ensure that regulation is targeted, easy to comply with and does not add unnecessary regulatory burdens
Although not a Vice-President, Dombrovskis has been given a dual role, reporting to President von der Leyen. As Commissioner for Economy and Productivity and Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification, he is tasked with seeking better coordination and regulatory simplification, key aspects of Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness.
First, as the lead on Economy and Productivity, he has to work with Member States to “ensure policy coherence between the EU and national level”. He will need to focus on the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact, the completion of the Next Generation EU and Recovery & Resilience Facility. He will have to leverage the European Semester as a driver for coordinated policies on competitiveness, sustainability, and social fairness, developing a new Competitiveness Coordination Tool, and implementing Draghi’s recommendations, to attract investments. Additionally, he will have to expand the European Investment Fund to support startups.
Second, Dombrovskis is tasked with driving forward the President’s regulatory simplification agenda. He will have to identify regulatory overlaps and contradictions based on stakeholder feedback and prepare annual plans for regulatory “fitness checks”. He will need to address implementation challenges and reduce administrative burdens, while strengthening impact assessments. And he will engage co-legislators to promote simplification and improve lawmaking processes.
Implementing the regulatory simplification roadmap
We need to listen to what our businesses, our farmers, our industries are telling us. To give our companies the space to focus less on meeting administrative requirements and more on implementing their idea
How can this simplification revolution take place to ensure a smart regulatory framework? Key objectives would include making concrete proposals on reducing red-tape and reporting requirements by first half of 2025.
- Sectoral legislation should be reviewed or withdrawn where horizontal rules exist. Examples include the ePrivacy Directive, cybersecurity and consumer regulation.
- Implementing legislation should be developed from the outset in close cooperation with the private sector and subject to prior impact assessment. A recent counter-example would be the NIS2 Implementing Act, which was adopted without private sector close interaction and prior to the transposition of the Directive.
- Public administrations should be subject to the same deadlines and obligations as the private sector (e.g. consumer protection vs. citizens service), to encourage better service and a more balanced approach, which is particularly important for SMEs.
Ultimately, it is crucial that the European Commission adopts an enabling mindset based on trust. This will require a greater level of trust in the private sector and its proposals, to facilitate business growth by addressing its needs.
