This how the EU plans to match up to Silicon Valley

The European Commission has unveiled the details of its ‘Digital Single Market’ plan. It’s made up of 16 vastly differing initiatives, which aims to help the European Union’s member countries work together digitally and compete on a stronger footing with Silicon Valley

The policies range from making it more efficient and affordable to ship physical goods when they’re purchased online, to a proposal pushing to end geo-blocking of content and services between European countries.

The Commission also plans to further investigates search engines, social media platforms and app stores to ensure they are not abusing dominant positions. That follows its recently launched anti-trust case against Google.

Notably, the plan proposes to significantly updated EU copyright law to allow “wider access” to material such as movies, music and articles, while users are traveling across Europe. Film studios are particularly uncomfortable about the idea and will lobby against it.

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What remains to be seen is if the new plan will make a real impact in the future, or ultimately won’t go beyond a proposal. Politico labeled an earlier, leaked version of the plan as “death by compromise” because it contains no immediate action steps.

You can read the full plan here. The Digital Single Market will be on the agenda for discussion at the next European Council meeting on June 25.

➤ A Digital Single Market for Europe: Commission sets out 16 initiatives to make it happen

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