It is about completing the Internal Market whilst simplifying the regulatory environment and about creating a clear and predictable legal framework to ensure that businesses can thrive and operate effectively on a level playing field in the internal market. It is difficult even for experts to answer the first question. By and large this is the European information law which builds the legal framework for the above mentioned model. But modern policy makers know that the speed of change in technologies and markets presents an unprecedented challenge for governments. Technologies and markets move faster than law-making.
Laws can be obsolete even before they are enacted.
The risks are well documented. Confronted with a reality they cannot control, governments may be pressed to strike pre-emptively, which often results in fragmentation of markets. In this fast moving environment, self-regulation has been advocated by industry as increasing speed and scope. A tool to better deliver solutions in the fast-changing, global economy. Of course, self-regulation is not apanacea.