COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS A European strategy for data
Date: 2020-02-19
Institutions: Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission
Subjects: EU strategy, cloud computing, data processing, data transmission, digital single market, digital technology, digitisation, innovation, technological change

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 19.2.2020  COM(2020) 66 final  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS A European strategy for data  
 
 
A European strategy for data 

1.  Introduction 

Over  the  last  few  years,  digital  technologies  have  transformed  the  economy  and  society, 
affecting all sectors of activity and the daily lives of all Europeans. Data is at the centre of this 
transformation and more is to come. Data-driven innovation will bring enormous benefits for 
citizens, for example through improved personalised medicine, new mobility and through its 
contribution  to  the European Green Deal.  In a society where individuals will generate ever-
increasing amounts of data, the way in which the data are collected and used must place the 
interests of the individual first, in accordance with European values, fundamental rights and 
rules. Citizens will trust and embrace data-driven innovations only if they are confident that 
any  personal  data  sharing  in  the  EU  will  be  subject  to  full  compliance  with  the  EU’s  strict 
data protection rules. At the same time, the increasing volume of non-personal industrial data 
and public data in Europe, combined with technological change in how the data is stored and 
processed, will constitute a potential source of growth and innovation that should be tapped.  

Citizens should be empowered to make better decisions based on insights gleaned from non-
personal  data.  And  that  data  should  be  available  to  all  –  whether  public  or  private,  big  or 
small,  start-up  or  giant.  This  will  help  society  to  get  the  most  out  of  innovation  and 
competition  and  ensure  that  everyone  benefits  from  a  digital  dividend.  This  digital  Europe 
should reflect the best of Europe - open, fair, diverse, democratic, and confident. 

The EU can become a leading role model for a society empowered by data to make better 
decisions – in business and the public sector. To fulfil this ambition, the EU can build on a 
strong  legal  framework  –  in  terms  of  data  protection,  fundamental  rights,  safety  and  cyber-
security – and its internal market with competitive companies of all sizes and varied industrial 
base. If the EU is to acquire a leading role in the data economy, it has to act now and tackle, 
in  a  concerted  manner,  issues  ranging  from  connectivity  to  processing  and  storage  of  data, 
computing  power  and  cybersecurity.  Moreover,  it  will  have  to  improve  its  governance 
structures for handling data and to increase its pools of quality data available for use and re-
use.  

Ultimately,  Europe  aims  to  capture  the  benefits  of  better  use  of  data,  including  greater 
productivity  and  competitive  markets,  but  also  improvements  in  health  and  well-being, 
environment, transparent governance and convenient public services. The measures laid out in 
this paper contribute to  a comprehensive approach to the data economy that aim to increase 
the use of, and demand for, data and data-enabled products and services throughout the Single 
Market. 

This  Communication  outlines  a  strategy  for  policy  measures  and  investments  to  enable  the 
data economy for the coming five  years. This data strategy is presented at the same time as 
the Commission’s Communication on “Shaping Europe’s digital future” and a White Paper on 

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artificial  intelligence  that  indicates  how  the  Commission  will  support  and  promote  the 
development and uptake of artificial intelligence across the EU.  

On the basis of this strategy, the Commission launches a comprehensive consultation on the 
specific  measures  that  could  be  taken  to  keep  the  EU  at  the  forefront  of  the  data-agile 
economy, while respecting and promoting the fundamental values that are the foundation of 
European societies. 

2.  What is at stake? 

Growing data volumes and technological change 

The volume of data produced in the world is growing rapidly, from 33 zettabytes in 2018 to 
an expected 175 zettabytes in  20251. Each new wave of data represents  major opportunities 
for the EU to become a world leader in this area. Furthermore, the way in which data is stored 
and  processed  will  change  dramatically  over  the  coming  5  years.  Today  80%  of  the 
processing  and  analysis  of  data  takes  place  in  data  centres  and  centralised  computing 
facilities,  and  20%  in  smart  connected  objects,  such  as  cars,  home  appliances  or 
manufacturing  robots,  and  in  computing  facilities  close  to  the  user  (‘edge  computing’).  By 
2025 these proportions are likely to be inverted2. Aside from the economic and sustainability 
advantages that this development presents, it opens up additional opportunities for businesses 
to develop tools for data producers to increase control over their own data. 

The importance of data for the economy and society 

Data will reshape the way we produce, consume and live. Benefits will be felt in every single 
aspect of our lives, ranging from more conscious energy consumption and product, material 
and food traceability, to healthier lives and better health-care. 

Personalised medicine will better respond to the patients’ needs by enabling doctors 
to  take  data-enabled  decisions.  This  will  make  it  possible  to  tailor  the  right 
therapeutic  strategy  to  the  needs  of  the  right  person  at  the  right  time,  and/or  to 
determine  the  predisposition  to  disease  and/or  to  deliver  timely  and  targeted 
prevention. 

Data  is  the  lifeblood  of  economic  development:  it  is  the  basis  for  many  new  products  and 
services, driving productivity and resource efficiency gains across all sectors of the economy, 
allowing for more personalised products and services and enabling better policy making and 
upgrading  government  services.  It  is  an  essential  resource  for  start-ups  and  small  and 
medium-sized  enterprises  (SMEs)  in  developing  products  and  services.  The  availability  of 
data is essential for training artificial intelligence systems, with products and services rapidly 

1 IDC, 2018.  
2 Gartner, 2017. 

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moving  from  pattern  recognition  and  insight  generation  to  more  sophisticated  forecasting 
techniques and, thus, better decisions. 

Data  will  also  fuel  the  wide  implementation  of  transformative  practices  such  as  the  use  of 
digital twins in manufacturing. 

Digital  twins  create  a  virtual  replica  of  a  physical  product,  process  or  system.  The 
replica  can  for  example  predict  when  a  machine  will  fail,  based  on  data  analysis, 
which allows to increase productivity through predictive maintenance. 

Moreover,  making  more  data  available  and  improving  the  way  in  which  data  is  used  is 
essential  for  tackling  societal,  climate  and  environment-related  challenges,  contributing  to 
healthier, more prosperous and more sustainable  societies.  It  will for  example lead to  better 
policies to achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal. At the same time, the current 
environmental footprint of the ICT sector is estimated to be between 5 to 9% of the world’s 
total  electricity use and  more than 2% of all emissions, a large part  of which is  due to data 
centres, cloud services and connectivity. The EU’s digital strategy ‘Shaping Europe’s digital 
future’ proposes green transformation measures for the ICT sector. 

The EU has everything to play for in the data economy of the future 

Currently, a small number of Big Tech firms hold a large part of the world’s data. This could 
reduce  the  incentives  for  data-driven  businesses  to  emerge,  grow  and  innovate  in  the  EU 
today, but numerous opportunities lie ahead. A large part of the data of the future will come 
from  industrial  and  professional  applications,  areas  of  public  interest  or  internet-of-things 
applications in everyday life, areas where the EU is strong. Opportunities will also arise from 
technological change, with new perspectives for European business in areas such as cloud at 
the  edge,  from  digital  solutions  for  safety  critical  applications,  and  also  from  quantum 
computing. These trends indicate that the winners of today will not necessarily be the winners 
of tomorrow. But the sources of competitiveness for the next decades in the data economy are 
determined now. This is why the EU should act now . 

The EU has the potential to be successful in the data-agile economy. It has the technology, the 
know-how and a highly skilled workforce. However, competitors such as  China and the US 
are already innovating quickly and projecting their concepts of data access and use across the 
globe.  In  the  US,  the  organisation  of  the  data  space  is  left  to  the  private  sector,  with 
considerable concentration effects. China has a combination of government surveillance with 
a  strong  control  of  Big  Tech  companies  over  massive  amounts  of  data  without  sufficient 
safeguards for individuals. 

In order to release Europe’s potential we have to find our European way, balancing the flow 
and wide use of data, while preserving high privacy, security, safety and ethical standards.  

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What has been done so far? 

The  Commission  has  already  taken  a  number  of  steps  since  2014.  With  the  General  Data 
Protection  Regulation  (GDPR)3,  the  EU  created  a  solid  framework  for  digital  trust.  The 
upcoming  review  of  the  GDPR  may  provide  further  useful  elements  in  this  regard.  Other 
initiatives that have fostered the development ofthe data economy are the Regulation on the 
free  flow  of  non-personal  data  (FFD)4,  the  Cybersecurity  Act  (CSA)5,  and  the  Open  Data 
Directive6. The Commission had also engaged in digital diplomacy recognising 13 countries 
as providing adequate level of protection for personal data.  

Sector-specific  legislation  on  data  access  has  also  been  adopted  in  some  fields  to  address 
identified  market  failures,  such  as  automotive7,  payment  service  providers8,  smart  metering 
information9, electricity network data10, or intelligent transport systems11. The Digital Content 
Directive12  contributed  to  empowering  individuals  by  introducing  contractual  rights  when 
digital services are supplied to consumers who provide access to their data. 

3.  The vision 

The  Commission’s  vision  stems  from  European  values  and  fundamental  rights  and  the 
conviction  that  the  human  being  is  and  should  remain  at  the  centre.  The  Commission  is 
convinced that businesses and the public sector in the EU can be empowered through the use 
of  data  to  make  better  decisions.  It  is  all  the  more  compelling  to  seize  the  opportunity 
presented by data for social and economic good, as data – unlike most economic resources – 
can  be  replicated  at  close  to  zero  cost  and  its  use  by  one  person  or  organisation  does  not 
prevent the simultaneous use by another person or organisation. That potential should be put 
to work to address the needs of individuals and thus create value for the economy and society. 
To  release  this  potential,  there  is  a  need  to  ensure  better  access  to  data  and  its  responsible 
usage. 

The EU should create an attractive policy environment so that, by 2030, the EU’s share of the 
data economy – data stored, processed and put to valuable use in Europe - at least corresponds 
to its economic weight, not by fiat but by choice. The aim is to create a single European data 
space – a genuine single market for data, open to data from across the world – where personal 
as well as non-personal data, including sensitive business data, are secure and businesses also 

3 Regulation (EU) 2016/679.  
4 Regulation (EU) 2018/1807.  
5 Regulation (EU) 2019/881.  
6 Directive (EU) 2019/1024.  
7 Regulation 715/2007 as amended by Regulation 595/2009.  
8 Payment Service Directive Directive 2015/2366.  
9 Directive 2019/944 for electricity, Directive 2009/73/EC for gas meters.  
10 Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1485, Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/703.  
11 Directive 2010/40/EU.  
12 Directive (EU) 2019/770. 

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have easy access to an almost infinite amount of high-quality industrial data, boosting growth 
and creating value, while minimising the human carbon and environmental footprint. It should 
be a space where EU law can be enforced effectively, and where all data-driven products and 
services  comply  with  the  relevant  norms  of  the  EU’s  single  market.  To  this  end,  the  EU 
should combine fit-for-purpose legislation and governance to ensure availability of data, with 
investments in standards, tools and infrastructures as well as competences for handling data. 
This favourable context, promoting incentives and choice, will lead to more data being stored 
and processed in the EU. 

The European data space will give businesses in the EU the possibility to build on the scale of 
the  Single  market.  Common  European  rules  and  efficient  enforcement  mechanisms  should 
ensure that: 
-  data can flow within the EU and across sectors; 
-  European  rules  and  values,  in  particular  personal  data  protection,  consumer  protection 

- 

legislation and competition law, are fully respected; 
the rules for access to and use of data are fair, practical and clear, and there are clear and 
trustworthy data governance mechanisms in place;there is an open, but assertive approach 
to international data flows, based on European values.  

The  steps  listed  here  to  enable  access  to  data  need  to  be  complemented  with  a  broader 
industrial  strategy  for  the  data-agile  economy.  Data  spaces  should  foster  an  ecosystem  (of 
companies, civil society  and individuals) creating new products and services based on more 
accessible  data.  Public  policy  can  increase  demand  for  data-enabled  offerings,  both  by 
increasing  the  public  sector’s  own  ability  to  employ  data  for  decision-making  and  public 
services and by updating regulation and sectoral policies to reflect the opportunities provided 
by data and ensure that they do not maintain disincentives for productive data use. 
The functioning of the European data space will depend on the capacity of the EU to invest in 
next-generation  technologies  and  infrastructures  as  well  as  in  digital  competences  like  data 
literacy.  This  in  turn  will  increase  Europe’s  technological  sovereignty  in  key  enabling 
technologies and infrastructures for the data economy. The infrastructures should support the 
creation  of  European  data  pools  enabling  Big  Data  analytics  and  machine  learning,  in  a 
manner  compliant  with  data  protection  legislation  and  competition  law,  allowing  the 
emergence  of  data-driven  ecosystems.  These  pools  may  be  organised  in  a  centralised  or  a 
distributed  way13.  The  organisations  contributing  data  would  get  a  return  in  the  form  of 
increased access to data of other contributors, analytical results  from the data pool, services 
such as predictive maintenance services, or licence fees. 

13 In the latter case the data are not moved to a central place in order to analyse them together with other data 
assets.  The  analytical  tools  come  to  the  data,  not  the  other  way  around.  This  makes  it  easier  to  keep  the  data 
secure and to ensure control over who accesses what data for what purposes. 

5 

 
 
                                                           
While data is  essential for all sectors of the economy and society, each  domain has its own 
specificities  and  not  all  sectors  are  moving  at  the  same  speed.  Therefore,  cross-sectoral 
actions  towards  a  European  data  space  need  to  be  accompanied  by  the  development  of 
sectoral data spaces in strategic areas such as manufacturing, agriculture, health, and mobility. 

4.  The problems 

Several issues are holding the EU back from realising its potential in the data economy. 

Fragmentation between Member States is a major risk for the vision of a common European 
data space and for the further development of a genuine single market for data. A number of 
Member  States  have  started  with  adaptations  of  their  legal  framework,  such  as  on  use  of 
privately-held  data  by  government  authorities14,  data  processing  for  scientific  research 
purposes15,  or  adaptations  to  competition  law16.  Others  are  only  starting  to  explore  how  to 
handle  the  issues  at  stake.  The  emerging  differences  underline  the  importance  of  common 
action  in  order  to  leverage  the  scale  of  the  internal  market.  Progress  will  need  to  be  made 
together on the following issues: 

Availability of data: The value of data lies in its use and re-use. Currently there is not enough 
data  available  for  innovative  re-use,  including  for  the  development  of  artificial  intelligence. 
The issues can be grouped according to who is the data holder and who is the data user, but 
also  depend  on  the  nature  of  data  involved  (i.e.  personal  data,  non-personal  data,  or  mixed 
data-sets  combining the  two17). Several  of the issues  concern the availability of data for the 
public good. 

Data  for  the  public  good:  Data  is  created  by  society  and  can  serve  to  combat 
emergencies, such as  floods and wildfires, to  ensure that people can live longer and 
healthier  lives,  to  improve  public  services,  and  to  tackle  environmental  degradation 
and climate change, and, where necessary and proportionate, to ensure more efficient 
fight against crime. Data generated by the public sector as well as the value created 
should be available for the common good by ensuring, including through preferential 
access,  that  these  data  are  used  by  researchers,  other  public  institutions,  SMEs  or 
start-ups.  Data  from  the  private  sector  can  also  make  a  significant  contribution  as 

14 For example the French ‘LOI n° 2016-1321 du 7 octobre 2016 pour une République numérique’, allowing the 
public sector to access certain (private sector) data of general interest or the Finnish Forest Act obliging forest 
owners to share information related to the management of the forest with the public sector. 
15 For example the Finnish law on secondary use of health and social data, creating a data permit authority. 
16  Discussions  on  adapting  the  competition  rules  to  make  them  better  equipped  for  the  data  economy  are  for 
example ongoing in Germany. See also the report for the Commission on ‘Competition policy for the digital era’. 
17  For  adding  legal  certainty,  the  European  Commission  issued  practical  guidance  for  businesses  on  how  to 
process  mixed 
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-
see  COM(2019)250 
market/en/news/practical-guidance-businesses-how-process-mixed-datasets 

in  May 

datasets 

2019; 

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public  goods.  The  use  of  aggregated  and  anonymised  social  media  data  can  for 
example be an effective way of complementing the reports of general practitioners in 
case of an epidemic. 

-  Use  of  public  sector  information  by  business  (government-to-business  –  G2B  –  data 
sharing).  Opening up  government-held  information is  a long-standing EU policy18. This 
data  has  been  produced  with  public  money  and  should  therefore  benefit  society.  The 
recently revised Open Data Directive19 as well as other sector-specific legislation ensures 
that  the  public  sector  makes  more  of  the  data  it  produces  easily  available  for  use20,  in 
particular  by  SMEs  but  also  for  civil  society,  and  the  scientific  community,  in  the 
framework of independent public policy evaluations. However, governments can do more. 
High-value datasets are often not available under the same conditions across the EU to the 
detriment  of  the  use  of  the  data  by  SMEs  that  cannot  afford  this  fragmentation.  At  the 
same time, sensitive data (e.g. health data) in public databases is often not made available 
for  research  purposes,  in  the  absence  of  capacity  or  mechanisms  that  allow  specific 
research actions to be taken in a manner compliant with personal data protection rules. 

-  Sharing and use of privately-held data by other companies (business-to-business – B2B – 
data-sharing). In spite of the economic potential, data sharing between companies has not 
taken  off  at  sufficient  scale.  This  is  due  to  a  lack  of  economic  incentives  (including  the 
fear of losing a competitive edge), lack of trust between economic operators that the data 
will be used in line with contractual agreements, imbalances in negotiating power, the fear 
of misappropriation of the data by third parties, and a lack of legal clarity on who can do 
what with the data (for example for co-created data, in particular IoT data).  

-  Use  of  privately-held  data  by  government  authorities  (business-to-government  –  B2G  – 
data  sharing). There is  currently not  enough private sector data available for use by the 
public  sector  to  improve  evidence-driven  policy-making21  and  public  services  such  as 
mobility  management  or  enhancing  the  scope  and  timeliness  of  official  statistics22,  and 
hence their relevance in the context of new societal developments. The recommendations 
of  an  Expert  Group23  created  by  the  Commission,  include  the  creation  of  national 
structures  for  B2G  data  sharing,  the  development  of  appropriate  incentives  to  create  a 

18 Since the adoption of Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information.  
19 Directive (EU) 2019/1024, repealing Directive 2003/98/EC as revised by Directive 2013/37/EU.  
20  The  European  open  data  portal  contains  examples  of  a  range  of  companies  from  across  the  EU  that  have 
benefited 
the  data  availability. 
from  open  data,  and  some  of 
https://www.europeandataportal.eu/en/using-data/use-cases. 
21 For example in new areas such as platform work. 
22 The scope of the work on B2G does not include the use of data for law enforcement purposes. Any action in 
this area should comply with data protection and privacy legislation. 
23 see here: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/news-redirect/666643. 

them  would  not  exist  without 

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data-sharing culture, and the suggestion to explore an EU regulatory framework to govern 
the public sector’s re-use for the public interest of privately-held data.. 

-  Sharing  of  data  between  public  authorities  is  equally  important.  It  can  make  a 
considerable  contribution  to  improving  policy  making  and  public  services,  but  also  to 
reduce  the  administrative  burden  on  companies  operating  in  the  Single  Market  (‘once 
only’ principle).  

Imbalances in market power: Beside the high concentration in the provision of cloud services 
and data infrastructures, there are also market imbalances in relation to access to and use of 
data, for example when it comes to access to data by SMEs. A case in point comes from large 
online  platforms,  where  a  small  number  of  players  may  accumulate  large  amounts  of  data, 
gathering important insights and competitive advantages from the richness and variety of the 
data they  hold.  This  can affect,  in turn, the contestability of markets  in  specific  cases  – not 
only the market for such platform services, but also the various specific markets for goods and 
services  served  by  the  platform,  in  particular  if  the  platform  is  itself  active  on  such  related 
markets.  The  high  degree  of  market  power  resulting  from  the  ‘data  advantage’  can  enable 
large players to set the rules on the platform and unilaterally impose conditions for access and 
use  of  data  or,  indeed,  allow  leveraging  of  such  ‘power  advantage’  when  developing  new 
services and expanding towards new markets.  Imbalances may also arise in other  situations, 
such as with regard to access to co-generated IoT data from industrial and consumer devices. 

Data interoperability and quality: Data interoperability and quality, as well as their structure, 
authenticity  and  integrity  are  key  for  the  exploitation  of  the  data  value,  especially  in  the 
context  of  AI  deployment.  Data  producers  and  users  have 
identified  significant 
interoperability  issues  which  impede  the  combination  of  data  from  different  sources  within 
sectors, and even more so between sectors. The application of standard and shared compatible 
formats and protocols for gathering and processing data from different sources in a coherent 
and interoperable manner across sectors  and vertical  markets  should be encouraged through 
the  rolling  plan  for  ICT  standardisation24  and  (as  regards  public  services)  a  strengthened 
European Interoperability Framework.25 

Data  governance:  There  have  been  calls  to  further  reinforce  the  governance  of  data  use  in 
society  and  the  economy.26  For  these  data  spaces  to  become  operational,  organisational 
approaches  and  structures  (both  public  and  private)  are  needed  that  enable  data-driven 
innovation on the basis of the existing legal framework. 

24 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/rolling-plan-ict-standardisation. 
25 https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en; see: COM(2017)134 final.  
26E.g. in a recent series of workshops undertaken by the Commission on the concept of ‘common European data 
spaces’ 
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/report-european-commissions-workshops-common-
european-data-spaces.  

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Data  infrastructures  and  technologies:  The  digital  transformation  of  the  EU  economy 
depends on the availability and uptake of secure, energy-efficient, affordable and high-quality 
data processing capacities, such as those offered by cloud infrastructures and services, both in 
data  centres  and  at  the  edge.  In  this  perspective,  the  EU  needs  to  reduce  its  technological 
dependencies in these strategic infrastructures, at the centre of the data economy.  

However problems persist on both the supply and demand side of cloud.  

On the supply side:  
-  EU-based cloud providers have only a small share of the cloud market, which makes the 
EU highly dependent on external providers, vulnerable to external data threats and subject 
to a loss of investment potential for the European digital industry in the data processing 
market; 

-  Service providers operating in the EU may also be subject to legislation of third countries, 
which  presents  the  risk  that  data  of  EU  citizens  and  businesses  are  accessed  by  third 
country jurisdictions that are in contradiction with the EU’s data protection framework. In 
particular, concerns have been voiced about several Chinese laws related to cybersecurity 
and national intelligence.  

-  While  third  country  legislations  like  the  U.S.  CLOUD  Act  are  based  on  public  policy 
reasons such as law enforcement access to data for criminal investigations, the application 
of  foreign  jurisdictions’  legislation  raises  legitimate  concerns  for  European  businesses, 
citizens and public authorities over legal uncertainty and compliance with applicable EU 
law,  such  as  data  protection  rules.  The  EU  is  acting  to  mitigate  such  concerns  through 
mutually beneficial international cooperation, such as the proposed EU-U.S. Agreement to 
facilitate cross border access to electronic evidence, alleviating the risk of conflict of laws 
and  establishing  clear  safeguards  for  the  data  of  EU  citizens  and  companies.  The  EU  is 
also working at the multilateral level, including in the context of the Council of Europe, to 
develop  common  rules  on  access  to  electronic  evidence,  based  on  a  high  level  of 
protection of fundamental and procedural rights. 

-  There is uncertainty about compliance of cloud service providers with important EU rules 

and standards, for example on data protection. 

-  Micro-enterprises  and  SMEs  suffer  economic  detriment  because  of  contract-related 

problems, e.g. non-conformity with the contract or unfair contract terms.27 

On the demand side:  
-  There  is  a  low  cloud  uptake  in  Europe  (1  company  in  4,  only  1  in  5  for  SMEs28). 
Significant divergences in cloud uptake exist between Member States (from below 10% to 
up to 65% of businesses using cloud); 

27 Study on the economic detriment from unfair and unbalanced cloud computing contract terms. 
28 https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Cloud_computing_-
_statistics_on_the_use_by_enterprises.  

9 

 
 
                                                           
-  Specifically,  cloud  uptake  in  the  European  public  sector  is  low.  This  may  lead  to  less 
efficient digital public services, not only because of the clear potential to cut IT costs by 
cloud adoption, but also because governments need the scalability of cloud computing to 
deploy technologies like Artificial Intelligence.  

-  There  is  frequently  insufficient  visibility  on  the  market  of  smaller,  often  European, 

providers of innovative cloud services.  

-  European  businesses  often  experience  problems  with  multi-cloud  interoperability,  in 

particular data portability.  

Empowering  individuals  to  exercise  their  rights:  Individuals  value  the  high  level  of 
protection  granted  by  the  GDPR  and  ePrivacy  legislation.  However,  they  suffer  from  the 
absence of technical tools and standards that make the exercise of their rights simple and not 
overly burdensome. The potential of Article 20 of the GDPR to enable novel data flows and 
foster  competition  is  recognised  in  reports  for  the  Commission  and  Member  State 
governments29, not  limited to  the EU30. Yet,  as a  result of its  design to enable switching of 
service providers rather than enabling data reuse in digital ecosystems the right has practical 
limitations. 

Since  increasingly  large  amounts  of  data  are  generated  by  consumers  when  they  use  IoT 
devices  and  digital  services,  consumers  may  be  faced  with  risks  of  discrimination,  unfair 
practices  and  ‘lock-in’  effects.  Considerations  of  consumer  and  innovation  empowerment 
underlie the provisions on data access and reuse of the Payment Services Directive 

In  response  to  this,  there  are  calls  to  give  individuals  the  tools  and  means  to  decide  at  a 
granular  level  what  is  done  with  their  data  (by  the  MyData  movement  and  others)31.  This 
promises  significant  benefits  to  individuals,  including  to  their  health  and  wellness,  better 
personal  finances,  reduced  environmental  footprint,  hassle-free  access  to  public  and  private 
services  and  greater  oversight  and  transparency  over  their  personal  data.  Those  tools  and 
means include consent management tools, personal information management apps, including 
fully decentralised solutions building on blockchain, as well as personal data cooperatives or 
trusts  acting  as  novel  neutral  intermediaries  in  the  personal  data  economy32.  Currently  such 
tools are still in their infancy, although they have significant potential and need a supportive 
environment.  

Skills and data literacy: Currently, big data and analytics are top of the list of critical skills 
shortages. In 2017, there were approximately 496 000 unfilled positions in the area of big data 

29  Cf.  e.g.  Cremer/deMontjoye/Schweitzer,  Competition  policy  for  the  digital  era;  Furman,  Unlocking  digital 
competition, report for the UK government; German Datenethikkommission.  
30 See introduction of a new Consumer Data Right in Australia, https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/consumer-
data-right-cdr-0 and the consultation in on data portability in Singapore. 
31 https://mydata.org/; https://www.decodeproject.eu/; https://solid.mit.edu/, https://radicalxchange.org/  
32 See report of German Datenethikkommission, p. 133 and Staff Working Document, p. 8. 

10 

 
 
                                                           
and analytics in the EU2733. Moreover, general data literacy in the workforce and across the 
population is relatively low and participation gaps exist (for example by elderly people). If it 
is not addressed, the shortage in data experts and the lack of data literacy will affect the EU’s 
capacity to master the challenges of the data economy and society. 

Cybersecurity: In the area of cybersecurity Europe has developed an already comprehensive 
framework to support Member States, businesses and citizens to tackle cybersecurity threats 
and attacks, and Europe  will continue to  develop  and improve its mechanisms to  protect  its 
data and the services building on it. The safe and widespread use of data-fuelled products and 
services  will  also  depend  on  the  highest  cybersecurity  standards.  The  EU  Cybersecurity 
Certification  Framework  and  the  EU  Agency  for  Cybersecurity  (ENISA)34  are  expected  to 
play an important role towards that endeavour. 

However, the new data paradigm where less data will be stored in data centres, and more data 
will be spread in a pervasive way closer to the user ‘at the edge’, brings new challenges for 
cybersecurity.  It  will  be  essential  to  preserve  data  security  when  data  are  being  exchanged. 
Ensuring  the  continuity  of  access  controls  (i.e.  how  security  attributes  of  data  are  managed 
and respected) across data value chains will be a key, but demanding, pre-requisite to foster 
data sharing and ensure trust among the different actors of European data ecosystems. 

New decentralised digital technologies such as blockchain offer a further possibility for 
both  individuals  and  companies    to  manage  data  flows  and  usage,  based  on  individual 
free choice and self-determination. Such technologies will make dynamic data portability 
in  real  time  possible  for  individuals  and  companies,  along  with  various  compensation 
models.  

5.  The strategy 

This European data strategy serves to realise the vision for a genuine single market for data 
and  tackles  the  problems  identified  through  policy  measures  and  funding,  building  on  what 
has already been achieved in the last few years.  

Each of the new legislative measures will be prepared and assessed in  full compliance with 
the Better Regulation principles. 

The actions are based on four pillars: 

33 IDC 2019.  
34 Regulation (EU) 2019/881 – European Cybersecurity Act. 

11 

 
 
                                                           
A.  A cross-sectoral governance framework for data access and use 

Cross-sectoral  (or  horizontal)  measures  for  data  access  and  use  should  create  the  necessary 
over-arching framework for the data-agile economy, thereby avoiding harmful fragmentation 
of the internal market through inconsistent actions between sectors and between the Member 
States.  Such  measures  should  nonetheless  take  into  account  the  specificities  of  individual 
sectors and of the Member States. 

The  Commission’s  approach  to  regulation  is  to  create  frameworks  that  shape  the  context, 
allowing  lively,  dynamic  and  vivid  ecosystems  to  develop.  Because  it  is  difficult  to  fully 
comprehend  all  elements  of  this  transformation  towards  a  data-agile  economy,  the 
Commission deliberately abstains from overly detailed, heavy-handed ex ante regulation, and 
will prefer an agile approach to governance that favours experimentation (such as regulatory 
sandboxes), iteration, and differentiation. 

In line with this principle, a first priority for operationalising the vision is to put in place an 
enabling  legislative  framework  for  the  governance  of  common  European  data  spaces 
(Q4 2020). Such governance structures should support decisions on what data can be used in 
which situations, facilitate cross-border data use, and prioritise interoperability requirements 
and  standards  within  and  across  sectors,  while  taking  into  account  the  need  for  sectoral 
authorities  to  specify  sectoral  requirements.  The  framework  will  reinforce  the  necessary 
structures  in  the  Member  States  and  at  EU  level  to  facilitate  the  use  of  data  for  innovative 
business ideas, both at sector- or domain-specific level and from a cross-sector perspective. It 
will build on recent initiatives in the Member States35 and in individual sectors to address one 
or more of the following issues: 

- 

strengthen the governance mechanisms at EU level and in the Member States relevant for 
cross-sector data use and for data use in the common sectoral data spaces, involving both 
private  and  public  players.  This  could  include  a  mechanism  to  prioritise  standardisation 
activities36 and to work towards a more harmonised description and overview of datasets, 
data objects and identifiers to foster data interoperability (i.e. their usability at a technical 
level37)  between  sectors  and,  where  relevant,  within  sectors38.  This  can  be  done  in  line 
with the principles on Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability (FAIR) 
of data taking into account the developments and decisions of sector-specific authorities; 

35 Finnish Health and Social Data Permit Authority (https://www.findata.fi/en/), French Health Data Hub 
(https://www.health-data-hub.fr/), German Forschungsdatenzentrum 
(https://www.forschungsdatenzentrum.de/en).  
36 The idea is not to create a body that develops new standards, but rather to be able to prioritise between existing 
and future standards to be developed. 
37 See also the FAIR data principles: https://www.force11.org/group/fairgroup/fairprinciples. 
38 For instance, the 2017 Tallinn Ministerial Declaration on e-Government calls on governments to “increase the 
findability, quality and technical accessibility of data in key base registers.” 

12 

 
 
                                                           
- 

facilitate decisions on which data can be used, how and by whom for scientific research 
purposes in a manner compliant with the GDPR. This is particularly relevant for publicly-
held databases with sensitive data not covered by the Open Data Directive; 

-  make  it  easier  for  individuals  to  allow  the  use  of  the  data  they  generate  for  the  public 

good, if they wish to do so (‘data altruism’), in compliance with the GDPR. 

Secondly,  the  Commission  will  work  on  making  more  high-quality  public  sector  data 
available for re-use, in particular in view of its potential for SMEs. In order to open up key 
public sector reference data sets for innovation, it shall start the procedure for the adoption of 
an  Implementing  act  on  high-value  data  sets  (Q1  2021)  under  the  Open  Data  Directive, 
making  these  data  sets  available  across  the  EU  for  free,  in  machine-readable  format  and 
through standardised Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The Commission will look 
into  mechanisms  to  take  into  account  the  particular  needs  of  SMEs.  It  will  also  assist  the 
Member  States  to  ensure  a  timely  and  accurate  transposition  of  the  new  rules  of  the  Open 
Data Directive by 17 July 2021. 

- 

Third,  the  Commission  will  explore  the  need  for  legislative  action  on  issues  that  affect 
relations between actors in the data-agile economy to provide incentives for horizontal data 
sharing  across  sectors  (complementing  data  sharing  within  sectors  as  described  in  the 
appendix)). One or more of the following issues could be taken forward in a Data Act (2021): 
-  Foster business-to-government data sharing for the public interest also in the light of the 
recommendations included in the report of the Expert Group on Business-to-Government 
Data Sharing).  
support business-to-business data sharing, in particular addressing issues related to usage 
rights for co-generated data (such as IoT data in industrial settings), typically laid down in 
private  contracts.  The  Commission  will  also  seek  to  identify  and  address  any  undue 
existing hurdles hindering data sharing and to clarify rules for the responsible use of data 
(such as legal liability). The general principle shall be to facilitate voluntary data sharing.  
-  only where specific circumstances so dictate39, access to data should be made compulsory, 
where  appropriate  under  fair,  transparent,  reasonable,  proportionate  and/or  non-
discriminatory conditions40.  
evaluating  the  IPR  framework  with  a  view  to  further  enhance  data  access  and  use 
(including  a  possible  revision  of  the  Database  Directive41  and  a  possible  clarification  of 
the application of the Trade Secrets Protection Directive42 as an enabling framework). 

- 

39  A  data  access  right  should  only  be  sector-specific  and  only  given  if  a  market  failure  in  this  sector  is 
identified/can be foreseen, which competition law cannot solve. The scope of a data access right should take into 
account legitimate interests of the data holder and needs to respect the legal framework. 
40  Variations  of  this  principle  apply  in  particular  with  respect  to  certain  motor  vehicle  repair  and  maintenance 
information to be made accessible under Regulation 715/2007 as well as for information resulting from testing of 
chemicals on vertebrate animals under Regulation 1907/2006 (REACH).  
41 Directive 96/9/EC. 

13 

 
 
                                                           
Furthermore, the Commission will assess what measures are necessary to establish data pools 
for data analysis and machine learning.  

The  Commission  will  provide  more  guidance  to  stakeholders  on  the  compliance  of  data 
sharing  and  pooling  arrangements  with  EU  competition  law  by  means  of  an  update  of  the 
Horizontal Co-operation Guidelines43. The Commission is also prepared to provide additional 
individual project-related guidance on the compatibility with EU competition rules, if needed. 
In the exercise of its merger control powers, the Commission will look closely at the possible 
effects on competition of large-scale data accumulation through acquisitions and at the utility 
of data-access or data-sharing remedies to resolve any concerns.  

In its ongoing review of a number of State Aid guidelines, the Commission will examine the 
relationship  between  public  support  to  undertakings  (e.g.  for  digital  transformation)  and  the 
minimisation of competition distortions through data-sharing requirements for beneficiaries. 

The review of the current self-regulatory approach for cloud provider switching44 could lead 
to further action, depending on the progress made by market players. 

The  Commission  will  also  consider  jurisdictional  issues  related  to  data.  These  issues  create 
uncertainty for businesses which may face conflicting rules. The EU should not compromise 
on its principles: all companies which sell goods or provide services related to the data-agile 
economy  in  the  EU  must  respect  EU  legislation  and  this  should  not  be  compromised  by 
jurisdictional claims from outside the EU. 

The Commission will consider measures that facilitate the use of data in products and services 
and  increase  demand  for  data-enabled  services.  Sectoral  reviews  should  identify  regulatory 
and  non-regulatory  obstacles  to  the  use  of  data  and  data-enabled  offerings.  Increased 
availability  and  standardisation  of  data  should  also  facilitate  real-time  and  cross-border 
compliance, leading to reductions in administrative burdens and barriers to the Single Market. 
Furthermore, governments can also foster demand through increased use of data-analytics and 
automated services in public services and decision making. 

The accumulation of vast amounts of data by Big Tech companies, the role of data in creating 
or reinforcing imbalances in bargaining power and the way these companies use and share the 
data across sectors is  being analysed by the  Observatory of the  Online Platforms  Economy. 
The  issue  will  not  be  addressed  as  part  of  the  Data  Act,  but  under  the  broader  fact-finding 
around  the  high  degree  of  market  power  of  certain  platforms  and  also  in  the  context  of  the 
Commission’s work on the Digital Services Act package. On the basis of this fact-finding, the 
Commission will consider how best to address more systemic issues related to platforms and 
data, including by ex ante regulation if appropriate, to ensure that markets stay open and fair. 

42 Directive (EU) 2016/943. 
43 2011/C 11/01. 
44 https://swipo.eu/ The approach is based on the Free flow of data regulation, Regulation (EU) 2018/1807. 

14 

 
 
                                                                                                                                                                                     
Leading by example 

The Commission will strive for excellence in the way it organises its own data, uses the data 
for  better  policy  making,  and  makes  the  data  it  produces  and  funds  available  to  others, 
including through the EU Open Data Portal45. 

The EU will continue to make data resulting from its research and deployment programmes 
available  in  line  with  the  principle  ‘as  open  as  possible,  as  closed  as  necessary’,  and  will 
continue  to  facilitate  discovery,  sharing  of,  access  to  and  reuse  of  data  and  services  by 
researchers through the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)46. 

The  EU  will  also  contribute  data  and  infrastructure  from  the  Copernicus  earth  observation 
programme  to  underpinning  the  European  data  spaces  where  relevant.  At  the  same  time, 
the  application  of  European  digital 
through 
enhancing 
technological  solutions  will  offer  new  innovation  opportunities  to  the  data  spaces 
constituency, both public and private.  

the  Copernicus  ecosystem 

The EU will seek to make increased use of data and data analytics in its internal processes and 
as an input to Commission decision-making and reviews of existing policy 

Key actions 

- Propose a legislative framework for the governance of common European data spaces, Q4 

2020 

- Adopt an implementing act on high-value data-sets, Q1 2021 

- Propose, as appropriate, a Data Act, 2021 

- Analysis of the importance of data in the digital economy (e.g. through the Observatory of 
the Online Platform Economy), and review of the existing policy framework in the context 
of the Digital Services Act package (Q4 2020).  

B.  Enablers:  Investments  in  data  and  strengthening  Europe’s  capabilities  and 

infrastructures for hosting, processing and using data, interoperability 

Europe’s data strategy relies on a thriving ecosystem of private actors to create economic and 
societal  value  from  data.  Start-ups  and  scale-ups  will  play  a  key  role  in  developing  and 
growing  disruptive  new  business  models  that  fully  take  advantage  of  the  data  revolution. 
Europe  should  offer  an  environment  that  supports  data-driven  innovation  and  stimulates 
demand for products and services that rely on data as an important factor of production. 

45 https://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/. 
46 https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience/index.cfm?pg=open-science-cloud. See also  COM (2016) 178 final 
and SWD(2018)83. 

15 

 
 
                                                           
Making rapid progress on data-driven innovation in strategic areas requires investments, both 
from the private and public sectors. The Commission will use its convening power as well as 
EU funding programmes to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty for the data-agile 
economy.  This  will  be  done  through  standard  setting,  tool  development,  best  practices 
collection on how to deal with personal data (especially around pseudonymization) as well as 
build-out  of  next-generation  infrastructures  for  data  processing.  Where  relevant,  the 
investments  will  be  co-ordinated  with  relevant  authorities  in  Member  States  and  paired,  in 
line with state aid rules, with national and regional funding and with investments through the 
structural and investment funds.  

In  the  period  2021-2027,  the  Commission  will  invest  in  a  High  Impact  Project  on 
European data spaces and federated cloud infrastructures.. 

The  project  will  fund  infrastructures,  data-sharing  tools,  architectures  and  governance 
mechanisms for thriving data-sharing and Artificial Intelligence ecosystems. It will be based 
on the European federation (i.e. interconnection) of energy-efficient and trustworthy edge and 
cloud  infrastructures  (Infrastructure-as-a-Service,  Platform-as-a-Service  and  Software-as-a-
Service services). It will address the specific needs of industries in the EU, including hybrid 
cloud  deployment  models  that  allow  data  processing  at  the  edge  with  no  latency  (cloud-to-
edge).  This  project  will  involve  and  benefit  the  European  ecosystem  of  data-intensive 
companies,  and  will  support  European  companies  and  the  public  sector  in  their  digital 
transformation. 

For  this  project  to  be  credible  as  a  pan-European  initiative,  it  needs  an  adequate  level  of 
investment. The Member States and industry are expected to co-invest with the Commission 
in the project, which could arrive at a total funding in the order of €4-6 billion, of which the 
Commission could aim at financing €2 billion, drawing upon different spending programmes, 
subject to an agreement on the next Multiannual Financial Framework. 

This Project needs to be seen in the context of a  wider set of strategic EU investments in 
new technologies that the Commission will present in March 2020 as part of its industrial 
strategy.  They  concern  in  particular  funding  for  edge  computing,  high-performance 
computing/quantum  computing,  cyber-security,  low-power  processors  and  6G  networks. 
These investments are essential for the EU’s data infrastructure of the future, to equip Europe 
with  the right  infrastructures, computing power,  encryption capacity  and  cybersecurity tools 
to process data. 

High  Impact  Project:  developing  common  European  data  spaces  and  interconnecting  cloud 
infrastructures 

Concretely,  the  Commission  intends  to  fund  the  establishment  of  EU-wide  common, 
interoperable  data  spaces  in  strategic  sectors.  Such  spaces  aim  at  overcoming  legal  and 
technical barriers to data sharing across organisations, by combining the necessary tools and 
infrastructures and addressing issues of trust, for example by way of common rules developed 

16 

 
 
for the space. The spaces will include: (i) the deployment of data-sharing tools and platforms; 
(ii) the creation of data governance frameworks; (iii) improving the availability, quality and 
interoperability  of  data  –  both  in  domain-specific  settings  and  across  sectors.  Funding  will 
also support authorities in the Member States in making high value data sets available for re-
use in the different common data spaces. 

The  support  for  data  spaces  will  also  cover  data  processing  and  computing  capacities  that 
comply  with  essential  requirements  in  terms  of  environmental  performance,  security,  data 
protection, interoperability and scalability. 

With focus on the areas where EU level support has clear added value, investments may also 
cover the interconnection of existing computing capacities at  national47 and European level, 
including  High  Performace  Computing  capacities48,  and  will  -where  needed-  bring  together 
the  capacity  of  data  processing  resources.  The  aim  is  to  help  common  data  and  world  class 
cloud  infrastructures  for  the  public  good  to  emerge,  enabling  secure  data  storage  and 
processing for the public sector and research institutions. Similar positive effects are expected 
from  the  interconnection  with  the  European  Open  Science  Cloud  (EOSC)  and  the  Data  and 
Information  Access  Services  (DIAS)  cloud-based  platform  that  provides  access  to  services 
based on the Copernicus earth observation data.  

The  private  sector,  including  notably  SMEs,  also  needs  data  and  cloud  infrastructures  and 
services  that  provide  the  essential  features  of  security,  sustainability,  interoperability  and 
scalability. This is essential for European businesses to benefit from a complete value chain of 
data  generation,  processing,  access  and  re-use49.  The  investment  track  will  bring  together 
private  actors  with  public  support  to  develop  common  platforms  offering  access  to  a  large 
diversity of cloud services for secure data storage and sharing as well as applications ranging 
from  artificial  intelligence  to  simulation,  modelling,  digital  twins  and  high  performance 
computing  (HPC)  resources.  The  platform  will  cover  all  the  layers  of  data  and  computing 
infrastructure  and  services  and  will  seize  the  opportunities  offered  by  latest  developments 
such  as  edge  computing,  the  deployment  of  5G  and  the  uptake  of  Internet  of  Things  across 
industrial sectors. It will also help develop a dynamic ecosystem for a data- and cloud-based 
supply industry in Europe across the value chain. 

The  cloud  federation  component  of  the  High  Impact  Project  will  foster  the  gradual 
rebalancing  between  centralised  data  infrastructure  in  the  cloud  and  highly  distributed  and 
smart data processing at the edge. Such a project should therefore interconnect emerging edge 
computing capacities from the start. Over time, the project should furthermore enable access 
to  top-end high-performance computers  and its integration with  mainstream  data processing 

47 Such as the French “Cloud de Confiance” initiative or the Polish Common State IT Infrastructure Programme 
(WIIP) 
48 Notably the capacities supported under the EuroHPC initiative.  
49 For example as expressed by the industry support to the German Gaia-X project.  

17 

 
 
                                                           
services.  This  will  provide  a  seamless  computing  continuum  to  maximize  the  growth  and 
exploitation  of  common  European  data  spaces  for  public,  industrial  and  scientific 
applications. 

In  this  context,  the  Commission  will  foster  synergies  between  the  work  on  European  cloud 
federation  and  Member  States’  initiatives  such  as  Gaia-X50.  This  is  necessary  to  avoid 
multiplication  of  fragmented  cloud  federation  and  data-sharing  initiatives,  as  the  success  of 
such an initiative would depend on pan-European participation and capacity to scale. For this 
reason, the Commission will facilitate Memoranda of Understanding with Member States 
by Q3 2020, starting with those having existing cloud federation and data-sharing initiatives.  

Enabling access to competitive, secure and fair European cloud services 

In  order  to  protect  the  rights  and  interests  of  EU  companies  and  citizens,  the  Commission, 
with the support of the relevant authorities of the Member States, will pay particular attention 
to  the  adherence  of  cloud  service  providers  operating  on  the  EU  market  to  EU  rules  (e.g. 
General  Data  Protection  Regulation,  Free  Flow  of  non-personal  Data  Regulation  and  the 
Cybersecurity Act) and, where relevant, their envisaged implementation through self- and co-
regulatory mechanisms and technological means to increase trust, such as security by design 
and automated compliance. Currently, no comprehensive overview of these EU rules and self-
/co-regulatory  schemes  is  available  for  cloud  providers  and  users.  In  this  context,  the 
Commission  will  bring  together  by  Q2  2022  a  coherent  framework  around  the  different 
applicable  rules  (including  self-regulation)  for  cloud  services,  in  the  form  of  a  ‘cloud 
rulebook’. In a first instance, the cloud rulebook will offer a compendium of existing cloud 
codes  of  conduct  and  certification  on  security,  energy  efficiency,  quality  of  service,  data 
protection  and  data  portability.  In  the  area  of  energy  efficiency  earlier  action  will  be 
considered. 

In  coherence  with  the  cloud  rulebook,  the  Commission  will  facilitate  the  development  of  
common  European  standards  and  requirements  for  the  public  procurement  of  data 
processing services. This will enable the EU’s public sector at European, national, regional 
and local level to also become a driver of new EU data processing capacities, rather than just 
a beneficiary of such European infrastructures51.  

To  fully  leverage  this  potential,  additional  work  should  be  done  to  connect  demand-side 
organisations  in  the private and public sector to  the new  and innovative  offering of tailored 
data  processing  services,  specifically  at  Platform-as-a-Service  and  Software-as-a-Service 

50 An initiative to stimulate cloud federation from the German perspective, presented by the German government 
on 29 October 2019. The purpose of the project is to cater for European standards and reference architectures to 
create EU-based ‘virtual hyperscale providers’. 
51 Examples of similar public procurement programmes in this area can be drawn from third countries, e.g. the 
American  ‘FedRAMP’  government  procurement  program.  It  provides  a  standardised  approach  to  security 
assessment, authorisation, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services across federal agencies. 

18 

 
 
                                                           
levels. The set-up of a cloud services marketplace for EU users from the private and public 
sector will be facilitated by the Commission by Q4 2022. The marketplace will put potential 
users  (in  particular  the  public  sector  and  SMEs)  in  the  position  to  select  cloud  processing, 
software and platform service offerings that comply with a number of requirements in areas 
like  data  protection,  security,  data  portability,  energy  efficiency  and  market  practice. 
Participation in the marketplace for service providers will be made conditional on the use of 
transparent  and  fair  contract  conditions,  which  the  current  market  does  not  always  provide, 
specifically  to  micro-enterprises  and  SME  users52.  The  marketplace  can  facilitate  public 
sector procurement of alternative solutions, and take-up by the public sector can support the 
marketplace due to its significant aggregate demand. 

While  a  number  of  Member  States  are  already  developing  similar  marketplace  initiatives  at 
national  level,  the advantage of an EU-level cloud services marketplace is  two-fold: first,  it 
can resolve the current problem of market asymmetry between hyperscale global actors that 
often offer integrated solutions containing applications also provided by smaller (EU) players. 
Second,  it  can  generate  clarity  about  the  compliance  of  cloud  services  with  relevant  rules. 
This  will  ensure  a  better  match  between  the  EU  offer  and  demand  stemming  notably  from 
public administrations, services of general public interest and SMEs. 

Support progress on data technologies  

The Horizon Europe programme will continue to support technologies that are crucial for the 
next  stages  of  the  data  economy,  such  as  privacy  preserving  technologies  and  technologies 
underpinning  industrial  and  personal  data  spaces.  Several  Horizon  Europe  candidate 
partnerships,  such  as  the  partnership  for  Artificial  intelligence,  data  and  robotics  and  the 
European  Open  Science  Cloud  partnership,  that  are  in  preparation  can  help  steer  the 
investments in this area. 

Key actions 

-  Invest  in  a  High  Impact  project  on  European  data  spaces,  encompassing  data  sharing 
architectures  (including  standards  for  data  sharing,  best  practices,  tools)  and  governance 
mechanisms,  as  well  as  the  European  federation  of  energy-efficient  and  trustworthy  cloud 
infrastructures and related services, with a view to facilitating combined investments of €4-6 
billion,  of  which  the  Commission  could  aim  at  investing  €2  billion.  First  implementation 
phase foreseen for 2022; 

- Sign Memoranda of Understanding with Member States on cloud federation, Q3 2020; 

52  See:  ‘Study  on  the  economic  detriment  to  SMEs  arising  from  unfair  and  unbalanced  cloud  computing 
contracts’, https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/dg_just_cloud_computing_final_report_web_final.pdf. 

19 

 
 
                                                           
-  Launch  a  European  cloud  services  marketplace,  integrating  the  full  stack  of  cloud  service 
offering, Q4 2022; 

- Create an EU (self-)regulatory cloud rulebook, Q2 2022. 

C.  Competences: Empowering individuals, investing in skills and in SMEs 

Empowering individuals with respect to their data 

Individuals should be further supported in enforcing their rights with regard to the use of the 
data they  generate. They can be empowered to  be in  control of their data through tools and 
means to decide at a granular level about what is done with their data (‘personal data spaces’). 
This could be supported by enhancing the portability right for individuals under Article 20 of 
the GDPR, giving them more control over who can access and use machine-generated data, 
for example through stricter requirements on interfaces for real-time data access and making 
machine-readable  formats  compulsory  for  data  from  certain  products  and  services,  e.g.  data 
coming from smart home appliances or wearables. In addition, rules for providers of personal 
data  apps  or  novel  data  intermediaries  such  as  providers  of  personal  data  spaces  could  be 
considered, guaranteeing their role as a neutral broker53. These issues can be further explored 
in  the  context  of  the  Data  Act  mentioned  above.  The  Digital  Europe  programme  will  also 
support the development and roll-out of ‘personal data spaces’. 

Investments in skills and general data literacy 

The  funding  dedicated  to  skills  under  the  Digital  Europe  programme  will  contribute  to 
narrowing  the  gap  in  terms  of  big  data  and  analytics  capacities.  The  programme  will  make 
funding  available to  expand the digital  talent  pool  with  in  the order of 250 000 people who 
will  be  able  to  deploy  the  latest  technologies  in  businesses  throughout  the  EU.  Given  the 
importance of data in the digital economy, many of these are likely to be related to data. 

Overall,  by  2025,  the  EU  and  the  Member  States  should  have  halved  the  current  gap  of 
1 million  digital  specialists,  including  by  putting  a  focus  on  increasing  the  participation  of 
women. 

The  idea  of  a  network  of  data  stewards  from  across  data-intensive  organisations  (both 
businesses  and  the  public  sector),  put  forward  by  the  expert  group  on  Business-to-
Government data sharing, will be further explored. 

In terms of general data literacy, the Reinforced Skills agenda will set out a pathway showing 
how EU and Member State action can increase the proportion of the EU population with basic 
digital skills, from the current 57% to 65% by 2025. 

53 Secure and universally usable digital identities are also crucial to enabling individuals’ access to and control 
over their data. 

20 

 
 
                                                           
Big  data  and  learning  analytics  offer  new  opportunities  to  capture,  analyse  and  use  data  to 
improve education and training. The updated  Digital Education Action Plan will reinforce 
better  access  to  and  use of  data  as  one  of  its  key  priorities,  in  order  to  make  education  and 
training  institutions  fit  for  the  digital  age  and  equip  them  with  the  capabilities  needed  for 
making better decisions and improving skills and competences. 

Dedicated capacity building for SMEs 

The forthcoming European SME strategy will define measures to build capacity for SMEs and 
start-ups. Data is an important asset in this context, since starting or scaling a company based 
on  data  is  not  very  capital  intensive.  SMEs  and  start-ups  often  require  legal  and  regulatory 
advice to fully capture the many opportunities ahead from data-based business models. 

The Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes as well as the structural and investment 
funds will create opportunities for SMEs in  the data economy, to  have better access  to  data 
and  to  develop  new  services  and  applications  based  on  data,  inter  alia  through  incubation 
schemes. 

Key action 

-  Explore  enhancing  the  portability  right  for  individuals  under  Article  20  of  the  GDPR 
giving them more control over who can access and use machine-generated data (possibly 
as part of the Data Act in 2021). 

D.  Common European data spaces in strategic sectors and domains of public interest 

In complement to the horizontal framework, as well as to the funding and the actions on skills 
and  empowerment  of  individuals  under  A,  B  and  C54,  the  Commission  will  promote  the 
development of common European data spaces in strategic economic sectors and domains of 
public interest. These sectors or domains are those where the use of data will have systemic 
impact on the entire ecosystem, but also on citizens.  

This  should  lead  to  the  availability  of  large  pools  of  data  in  these  sectors  and  domains, 
combined with the technical tools and infrastructures necessary to use and exchange data, as 
well  as  appropriate  governance  mechanisms.  While  not  having  a  one-size-fits-all  approach, 
common governance concepts and models can be replicated in the different sectors. 

The horizontal framework will – where appropriate – be complemented by sectoral legislation 
for  data  access  and  use,  and  mechanisms  for  ensuring  interoperability.  Differences  between 
the  sectors  will  depend  on  the  maturity  of  the  discussions  on  and  problems  identified  with 
data  availability  in  the  sector.  A  further  relevant  factor  is  the  degree  of  public  interest  and 
involvement in a given sector, which may be higher in areas such as health and lower in areas 
such as manufacturing. The potential cross-sector use of data between sectors also needs to be 

54 The list of sectoral data spaces is not exhaustive and can be extended. 

21 

 
 
                                                           
taken into account. The data spaces will be developed in full compliance with data protection 
rules and according to the highest available cyber-security standards. 

Data spaces need to be complemented by policies that stimulate the use of data and demand 
for  services  enriched  with  data.  Work  on  sectoral  data  spaces  will  be  complemented  by 
sectoral measures across the data value chain. 

Building  on  the  ongoing  experience  with  the  research  community  with  the  European  Open 
Science  Cloud,  the  Commission  will  also  support  the  establishment  of  the  following  nine 
common European data spaces:  

  A  Common  European  industrial  (manufacturing)  data  space,  to  support  the 
competitiveness  and  performance  of  the  EU’s  industry,  allowing  to  capture  the 
potential value of use of non-personal data in manufacturing (estimated at € 1,5 trillion 
by 2027).  

  A Common European Green Deal data space, to use the major potential of data in 
support of the Green Deal priority actions on climate change, circular economy, zero-
pollution, biodiversity, deforestation and compliance assurance. The “GreenData4All” 
and  ‘Destination  Earth’  (digital  twin  of  the  Earth)  initiatives  will  cover  concrete 
actions.  

  A Common European mobility data space, to position Europe at the forefront of the 
development  of  an  intelligent  transport  system,  including  connected  cars  as  well  as 
other modes of transport. Such data space will facilitate access, pooling and sharing of 
data from existing and future transport and mobility databases.  

  A  Common  European  health  data  space,  which  is  essential  for  advances  in 
preventing,  detecting  and  curing  diseases  as  well  as  for  informed,  evidence-based 
decisions  to  improve  the  accessibility,  effectiveness  and  sustainability  of  the 
healthcare systems.  

  A  Common  European  financial  data  space,  to  stimulate,  through  enhanced  data 
sharing,  innovation,  market  transparency,  sustainable  finance,  as  well  as  access  to 
finance for European businesses and a more integrated market.  

  A  Common  European  energy  data  space,  to  promote  a  stronger  availability  and 
cross-sector sharing of data, in a customer-centric, secure and trustworthy manner, as 
this would facilitate innovative solutions and support the decarbonisation of the energy 
system.  

  A  Common  European  agriculture  data  space,  to  enhance  the  sustainability 
performance and competitiveness of the agricultural sector through the processing and 
analysis of production and other data, allowing for precise and tailored application of 
production approaches at farm level.  

  Common European data spaces for public administration, to improve transparency 
and accountability of public spending and spending quality, fighting corruption, both 

22 

 
 
at  EU  and  national  level,  and  to  address  law  enforcement  needs  and  support  the 
effective application of EU law and enable innovative ‘gov tech’, ‘reg tech’ and ‘legal 
tech’ applications supporting practitioners  as well as other services of public interest 
  A Common European skills data space, to reduce the skills mismatches between the 
education  and  training  system  on  the  one  hand  and  the  labour  market  needs  on  the 
other.  

The annex presents in more detail each of the sector- and domain-specific common European 
data spaces, with background on the sector-specific policies and legislation underpinning the 
creation  of  such  spaces  in  the  different  sectors  and  domains,  and  proposing  sector-specific 
actions  that  are  tangible,  sizable,  focused  on  data,  and  accompanied  by  a  clear  and  realistic 
timeline.  

The Commission may consider launching, in a sequential way, additional common European 
data spaces in other sectors.  

6.  An open, but proactive international approach 

The  vision  of  a  common  European  data  space  implies  an  open,  but  assertive  approach  to 
international data flows, based on European values. Today’s European companies operate in a 
connected environment that goes beyond the EU’s borders, so that international data flows are 
indispensable  for  their  competitiveness.  Building  upon  the  strength  of  the  Single  Market’s 
regulatory environment,  the EU has a strong interest in leading and supporting international 
cooperation  with  regard  to  data,  shaping  global  standards  and  creating  an  environment  in 
which economic and technological development can thrive, in full compliance with EU law.  

At  the  same  time,  European  companies  operating  in  some  third  countries  are  increasingly 
faced with unjustified barriers and digital restrictions. The EU will continue to address these 
unjustified obstacles to  data flows in  bilateral  discussions and international  fora  – including 
the  World  Trade  Organisation  –  while  promoting  and  protecting  European  data  processing 
rules  and  standards,  in  full  compliance  with  EU  legislation.  The  Commission  will  be 
particularly vigilant to protect and assert the rights, obligations and interests of Europeans and 
companies, in particular as regards data protection, security and fair and trustworthy market 
practices. The Commission is  convinced that  international  cooperation must  be based on an 
approach that promotes the EU’s fundamental values, including protection of privacy. The EU 
must  ensure,  therefore,  that  any  access  to  EU  citizen’s  personal  data  and  European 
commercially sensitive data is in compliance with its values and legislative framework. In that 
context,  transfers  and  sharing  of  data  between  trusted  countries  should  be  promoted.  As 
regards  personal  data,  international  transfers  are  done  via  adequacy  decisions  and  other 
existing  transfer  tools  which  guarantee  that  the  protection  travels  with  the  data  no  matter 
where  the  data  is.  Additionally,  and  without  prejudice  to  the  EU’s  framework  for  the 
protection of personal data, free and safe flow of data should be ensured with third countries, 

23 

 
 
subject  to  exceptions  and  restrictions  for  public  security,  public  order  and  other  legitimate 
public  policy  objectives  of  the  European  Union,  in  line  with  international  obligations.  This 
would  allow  the  EU  to  have  an  open  but  assertive  international  data  approach  based  on  its 
values and strategic interests. 

The Commission will continue to improve its capacity to  analyse the EU’s strategic interest 
with regard to further facilitating international data flows. To this end, the Commission will 
create a European analytical framework for measuring data flows (Q4 2021). This should 
be a durable framework that provides the tools to conduct a continuous analysis of data flows 
and  the  economic  development  of  the  EU’s  data  processing  sector,  including  a  robust 
methodology,  economic  valuation  and  data  flows  collection  mechanisms.  It  will  serve  to 
better  understand  patterns  of  data  flows  and  centres  of  gravity,  both  within  the  EU  and 
between the EU and the rest of the world, and can be a basis for adequate policy responses by 
the Commission, if necessary. It should also help to drive adequate investments to overcome 
possible infrastructure gaps preventing data flows. The Commission will therefore seek in due 
course  cooperation  with  relevant  financial  and  international  organisations  on  the  data  flow 
measurement framework (e.g. EIB, EBRD, OECD, IMF). 

The EU should take advantage of its effective data regulatory and policy framework to attract 
the storage and processing of data from other countries and regions, and to increase the high-
value-added innovation that arises from these data spaces. Companies from around the world 
will be welcome to  avail of the European data space, subject  to  compliance with  applicable 
standards,  including  those  developed  relative  to  data  sharing.  The  The  Connecting  Europe 
Facility  (CEF  2)  programme  as  well  as  t  the  new  external  instruments,  the  Neighbourhood, 
Development and International Cooperation Instrument and the Instrument for Pre-accession 
Assistance,  will  support  the  connectivity  of  third  countries  with  Europe,  which  will  in  turn 
increase  the  attractivness  of  data  interchange  between  the  EU  and  the  relevant  partner 
countries. 

In  parallel,  the  EU  will  also  actively  promote  its  standards  and  its  values  with  its  partners 
around  the  world55.  It  will  work  in  multilateral  fora  to  fight  abuses  such  as  the 
disproportionate access of governments to data, for example access to personal data that is not 
in line with the EU’s data protection rules.  In order to promote the European model around 
the world, the EU will work with trusted partners sharing the same standards and values, to 
support  others  who  wish  to  give  their  citizens  greater  control  over  their  data,  in  line  with 
values they share with Europe. For instance, the EU will support Africa in creating an African 
data economy for the benefit of its citizens and businesses. 

55 Following examples such as the adoption of rules modelled on the GDPR by Brazil and Kenya. 

24 

 
 
                                                           
Key action 

Create a framework to measure data flows and estimate their economic value within Europe, 

as well as between Europe and the rest of the world, Q4 2021. 

7.  Conclusion 

This Communication puts forward a European data strategy whose ambition is to enable the 
EU to become the most attractive, most secure and most dynamic data-agile economy in the 
world – empowering Europe with data to improve decisions and better the lives of all of its 
citizens. It enumerates a number of policy measures and investments needed to achieve this 
goal. 

The  stakes  are  high,  since  the  EU’s  technological  future  depends  on  whether  it  manages  to 
harness its strengths and seize the opportunities offered by the ever-increasing production and 
use of data. A European way for handling data will ensure that more data becomes available 
for addressing societal challenges and for use in the economy, while respecting and promoting 
our European shared values. 

In order to secure its digital future, the EU has to seize its window of opportunity in the data 
economy. 

25 

 
 
APPENDIX to the Communication ‘A European strategy for data’ 

Common European data spaces in in strategic sectors and domains of public interest 

The  Communication  ‘A  European  strategy  for  data’  announces  the  creation  of  sector-  and 
domain-specific data spaces.  

This  document  gives  additional  background  on  the  sector-specific  policies  and  legislation 
underpinning the creation of such spaces in the different sectors and domains.  

1.  Common European industrial (manufacturing) data space 

Europe  has  a  strong  industrial  base,  and  manufacturing  in  particular  is  an  area  where  the 
generation  of  and  use  of  data  can  make  a  significant  difference  to  the  performance  and 
competitiveness  of European industry. A 2018 study estimated the potential value of use of 
non-personal data in manufacturing at € 1,5 trillion by 202756. 

In order to unleash this potential, the Commission will: 

  Address  issues  related  to  the  usage  rights  on  co-generated  industrial  data  (IoT  data 

created in industrial settings), as part of a wider Data Act (Q4 2021). 

  Gather key players from the manufacturing sector to agree – in a manner compliant with 
competition rules as well as principles of fair contracts – the conditions under which they 
would be ready to share their data and how to further boost data generation, notably via 
smart  connected products (Q2 2020 onwards).  Where data  generated by  individuals  are 
concerned,  their  interests  should  be  fully  taken  into  account  in  such  a  process  and 
compliance with data protection rules must be ensured.  

2.  Common European Green Deal data space 

Europe’s  Green  Deal  has  set  out  the  ambitious  goal  for  Europe  to  become  the  world's  first 
climate-neutral continent by 2050. The Commission’s Communication clearly underlines the 
importance of data for achieving this goal. A European green data space can exploit the major 
potential  of  data  in  support  of  the  Green  Deal  priority  actions  on  climate  change,  circular 
economy, zero-pollution, biodiversity, deforestation and compliance assurance.  

In this context the Commission will: 

 

Initiate  a ‘GreenData4All’ initiative. This  consists  in  evaluating  and possibly reviewing 
the Directive establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the EU (INSPIRE), 
together with the Access to Environment Information Directive (Q4 2021 or Q1 2022). It 
will  modernise  the  regime  in  line  with  technological  and  innovation  opportunities, 
making  it  easier  for  EU  public  authorities,  businesses  and  citizens  to  support  the 
transition to a greener and carbon-neutral economy, and reducing administrative burden. 

56 Deloitte 2018.  

26 

 
 
                                                           
  Roll out re-usable data-services on a large scale to assist in collecting, sharing, processing 
and analysing large volumes of data relevant for assuring compliance with environmental 
legislation and rules related to the priority actions set in the Green Deal.(Q4 2021) 

  Establish a common European data space for smart circular applications making available 
the  most  relevant  data  for  enabling  circular  value  creation  along  supply  chains.  A 
particular focus will be concentrated at the outset on the sectors targeted by the Circular 
Economy  Action  Plan,  such  as  the  built  environment,  packaging,  textiles,  electronics, 
ICT  and  plastics.  Digital  ‘product  passports’  will  be  developed,  that  will  provide 
information on a product’s origin, durability, composition, reuse, repair and dismantling 
possibilities,  and  end-of-life  handling.  Development  of  architecture  and  governance 
(2020),  sectoral  data  strategies  (2021),  adoption  of  a  sustainable  product  policy  with 
product passport (2021) and resource mapping and waste shipments tracking (2021).  

 

Initiate  a  pilot  for  early  implementation  of  the  data  strategy  in  the  context  of  the  ‘zero 
pollution  ambition’  to  harvest  the  potential  of  an  already  data-rich  policy  domain  with 
data  on  chemicals,  air,  water  and  soil  emission,  hazardous  substances  in  consumer 
products, etc. which is underexploited and where early results can benefit consumers and 
the Planet directly (Q4 2021). 

  Launch the ‘Destination Earth’ initiative 

The ‘Destination Earth’ initiative will bring together European scientific and industrial 
excellence  to  develop  a  very  high  precision  digital  model  of  the  Earth.  This  ground-
breaking  initiative  will  offer  a  digital  modelling  platform  to  visualize,  monitor  and 
forecast natural and human activity on the planet in support of sustainable development 
thus  supporting Europe’s efforts for  a better  environment  as  set  out in the Green Deal. 
The digital twin of the Earth will be constructed progressively, starting in 2021. 

3.  Common European mobility data space 

Transport and mobility  are at  the forefront  of the debate on data sharing,  an area where the 
EU  has  many  assets.  This  concerns  the  automotive  sector,  where  connected  cars  critically 
depend  on  data,  as  well  as  other  transport  modes.  Digitisation  and  data  in  all  modes  of 
transport  and  in  logistics  will  be  an  essential  component  of  further  work  on  the  ‘European 
Transport  System’  and  in  particular  in  the  upcoming  ‘Smart  and  Sustainable  Transport 
Strategy’  (Q4  2020).  This  will  include  actions  in  all  transport  sectors  as  well  as  for  cross-
modal data sharing logistics and passengers ecosystems.  

Automotive 

Today,  modern  vehicles  generate  around  25  gigabytes  of  data  every  hour  and  autonomous 
cars will generate terabytes of data that can be used for innovative mobility-related services 
and  for  repair  and  maintenance  services.  Innovation  in  this  area  requires  that  car  data  are 
shared,  in  a  secure  and  well-framed  way,  in  line  with  competition  rules  amongst  many 
different  economic  players.  The  access  to  in-vehicle  data  is  regulated  since  2007  in  the  EU 

27 

 
 
vehicle approval legislation57 to ensure fair access to certain car data by independent repairers. 
This legislation is now being updated to take into account the increasing use of connectivity 
(3G-4G,  so-called  remote  diagnostics)58,  that  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  car-owners 
generating the data are respected and compliance with data protection rules is ensured. 

The full transport system 

Passenger transport activity is projected to grow by 35% during 2015-2050. Freight traffic for 
inland modes is expected to grow faster than for passenger at 53% by 205059. Digitalisation 
and  data  play  an  increasing  role  in  supporting  transport  sustainability.  Several  legislative 
frameworks  already  contain  data-sharing  obligations,  which  establishes  a  list  of  datasets 
(including  datasets  concerning  public  transport).  Moreover,  the  Digital  Transport  and 
Logistics Forum is working on a concept of ‘federated platforms’ to define what needs to be 
done  at  the  EU  level  to  facilitate  data-sharing/re-use  by  connecting  different  public  and 
private  platforms.  Furthermore,  networks  of  national  access  points  to  make  data  available 
exist  in  the  Member  States  where  the  data  are  made  available  with  a  view  to  serving  road 
safety, traffic and multi-modal travel information services, with data generated by the public 
and the private sector. Wide availability  and use of data in  public transport systems  has the 
potential  to  make  them  more  efficient,  green  and  customer  friendly.  Data  use  to  improve 
transport systems is also a central feature of smart cities.  

The Commission will: 

  Review the current EU type approval legislation for motor vehicles (currently focused on 
wireless data sharing for repair and maintenance), to  open it up to  more  car data based 
services (Q1 2021). The review will inter alia look at how data is made accessible by the 
car manufacturer, what procedures are necessary to obtain it in full compliance with data 
protection rules and the role and rights of the car owner.  

  Review  the  Directive  on  harmonised  river  information  services60  and  the  Directive  on 
Intelligent Transport Systems61, including its delegated regulations to further contribute to 
data  availability,  reuse  and  interoperability  (both  in  2021)  and  establish  a  stronger 
coordination mechanism to federate the National Access Points established under the ITS 
Directive through a EU wide CEF Programme Support Action (2020). 

  Amend  the  proposal  for  a  Regulation  on  the  Single  European  Sky62  to  include  new 
provisions  on  data  availability  and  market  access  of  data  service  providers  in  order  to 
promote  the  digitalisation  and  automation  of  air  traffic  management  (2020).  This  will 
improve safety, efficiency and capacity in air traffic. 

57 Regulation (EC) 715/2007.  
58 As required by Article 61 of Regulation (EU) 2018/858.  
59  In-depth  analysis  in  support  of  Commission  Communication  COM(2018)  773  ‘A  Clean  Planet  for  all:  A 
European long-term strategic vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy’. 
60 Directive 2005/44/EC. 
61 Directive 2010/40/EU. 
62 COM(2013) 410 final.  

28 

 
 
                                                           
  Review the regulatory framework for interoperable data-sharing in rail transport in 2022.  

  Establish common data sets as foreseen in the Regulation on Maritime Single Window63 
and,  subject  to  its  final  adoption,  in  the  Regulation  on  electronic  freight  transport 
information  regulations64  (the  first  such  act  to  be  adopted  by  Q3  2021  and  Q4  2022 
respectively)  to  facilitate  digital  exchange  and  data  reuse  between  businesses  and 
administration. 

4.  Common European health data space  

The current regulatory and research models rely on access to health data, including individual 
level  data  from  patients.  Strengthening  and  extending  the  use  and  re-use  of  health  data  is 
critical  for  innovation  in  the  healthcare  sector.  It  also  helps  healthcare  authorities  to  take 
evidence-based decisions to improve the accessibility, effectiveness and sustainability of the 
healthcare  systems.  It  also  contributes  to  the  competitiveness  of  the  EU’s  industry.  Better 
access to health data can significantly support the work of regulatory bodies in the healthcare 
system, the assessment of medical products and demonstration of their safety and efficacy. 

Citizens  have  the  right  in  particular  to  access  and  control  their  personal  health  data  and  to 
request  their  portability,  but  implementation  of  this  right  is  fragmented.  Working  towards 
making sure that every citizen has secure access to their Electronic Health Record (EHR) and 
can ensure the portability of his/her data – within and across borders – will improve access to 
and quality of care, cost effectiveness of care delivery and contribute to the modernisation of 
health systems. 

Citizens  also  need  to  be  reassured  that,  once  they  have  given  consent  for  their  data  to  be 
shared, the healthcare systems uses such data in an ethical manner and ensure that the given 
consent can be withdrawn at any time. 

Health is an area where the EU can benefit from the data revolution, increasing the quality of 
healthcare, while decreasing costs. Progress will often depend on the willingness of Member 
States  and  healthcare  providers  to  join  forces  and  find  ways  to  use  and  combine  data,  in  a 
manner compliant with the GDPR, under which health data merit specific protection. While 
the GDPR has created a level playing field for the use of health personal data, fragmentation 
remains within and between Member States and the governance models for accessing data are 
diverse.  The  landscape  of  digital  health  services  remains  fragmented,  especially  when 
provided cross-border. 

The Commission will:  

  Develop  sector-specific  legislative  or  non-legislative  measures  for  the  European  health 
data  space,  complementing  the  horizontal  framework  of  the  common  data  space.  Take 
measures  to  strengthen  citizens’  access  to  health  data  and  portability  of  these  data  and 

63 Regulation (EU) 2019/1239.  
64 The negotiations with the co-legislators are concluded, adoption is foreseen mid-2020.  

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tackle barriers to cross-border provision of digital health services and products. Facilitate 
the establishment, in accordance with Article 40 of the GDPR, of a Code of Conduct for 
processing  of  personal  data  in  health  sector.  These  actions  will  build  upon  an  ongoing 
mapping of the use of personal health data in Member States and the results of the Joint 
Action in the context of the Health programme (2020-2023)65. 

  Deploy  the  data  infrastructures,  tools  and  computing  capacity  for  the  European  health 
data  space,  more  specifically  support  the  development  of  national  electronic  health 
records  (EHRs)  and  interoperability  of  health  data  through  the  application  of  the 
Electronic  Health  Record  Exchange  Format.  Scale  up  cross-border  exchange  of  health 
data;  link  and  use,  through  secure,  federated  repositories,  specific  kinds  of  health 
information, such as EHRs, genomic information (for at least 10 million people by 2025), 
and  digital  health  images,  in  compliance  with  the  GDPR.  Enable  the  exchange  of 
electronic patient summaries and ePrescriptions between 22 Member States participating 
in  the  eHealth  Digital  Service  Infrastructure  (eHDSI)  by  2022;  start  cross-border 
electronic exchanges through eHDSI of medical images, laboratory results and discharge 
reports and enhance the virtual consultation model and registries of European Reference 
Networks; support big data projects promoted by the network of regulators. These actions 
will  support  prevention,  diagnosis  and  treatment  (in  particular  for  cancer,  rare  diseases 
and  common  and  complex  diseases),  research  and  innovation,  policy-making  and 
regulatory activities of Member States in the area of public health. 

5.  Common European financial data space 

In  the  financial  sector,  EU  legislation  requires  financial  institutions to  disclose  a  significant 
amount  of  data  products,  transactions  and  financial  results.  Moreover,  the  revised  Payment 
Services Directive marks an important step towards open banking, where innovative payment 
services can be offered to consumers and businesses on the basis of the access to their bank 
account  data.  Going  forward,  enhancing  data  sharing  would  contribute  to  stimulating 
innovation as well as achieving other important policy objectives at EU level.  

The  Commission  will  set  out  concrete  initiatives  on  this  in  its  upcoming  Digital  Finance 
Strategy in Q3 2020 along the following considerations: 

  The  Commission  will  further  facilitate  access  to  public  disclosures  of  financial  data  or 
supervisory reporting data, currently mandated by law, for example by promoting the use 
of  common  pro-competitive  technical  standards.  This  would  facilitate  more  efficient 
processing of such publicly accessible data to the benefit of a number of other policies of 
public interest, such as enhancing access to finance for European businesses through more 
integrated  capital  markets,  improving  market  transparency  and  supporting  sustainable 
finance in the EU. 

65 https://ec.europa.eu/health/funding/programme_en. 

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  On  the  basis  of  recent  market  developments  on  open  finance,  the  Commission  will 
continue  to  ensure  full  implementation  of  the  revised  Payment  Services  Directive  and 
explore additional steps and initiatives building on this approach. 

6.  Common European energy data space  

In  the  energy  sector,  several  Directives  establish  customer  access  to  and  portability  of  their 
meter  and  energy  consumption  data  on  a  transparent,  non-discriminatory  basis  and  in 
compliance with data protection law. The specific governance frameworks are to be defined at 
the national level. Legislation also introduced data-sharing obligations for electricity network 
operators.  Regarding  cybersecurity,  work  is  ongoing  to  address  energy-specific  challenges, 
notably:  real-time  requirements,  cascading  effects  and  the  mix  of  legacy  technologies  with 
smart/state-of-the-art technology . 

The  availability  and  cross-sector  sharing  of  data,  in  a  secure  and  trustworthy  manner  can 
facilitate  innovative  solutions  and  support  the  decarbonisation  of  the  energy  system.  The 
Commission  will  address  these  issues  as  part  of  the  smart  sector  integration  strategy  to  be 
adopted  in  the  second  quarter  of  this  year  as  announced  in  the  Communication  on  the 
European Green Deal. 

The Commission will: 

  Adopt  implementing  act(s)66  setting  out  the  interoperability  requirements  and  non-
discriminatory and transparent procedures for access to data, building on existing national 
practices on the basis of the Electricity Directive 2019/944 (2021/2022).  

  Consider actions for improving the interoperability in smart buildings and products, with a 
view  to  improve  their  energy  efficiency,  optimise  local  consumption  and  broaden  the 
integration of renewable energy sources (Q4 2020).  

7.  Common European agricultural data space  

Data is one key element to enhance the sustainability performance and competitiveness of the 
agricultural sector. Processing and analysing production data, especially in combination with 
other  data  on  the  supply  chain  and  other  types  of  data,  such  as  earth  observation  or 
meteorological  data,  allows  for  precise  and  tailored  application  of  production  approaches  at 
farm level. A code of conduct for sharing of agricultural data by contractual agreement was 
developed in 2018 by EU stakeholders, involving – among others – the farming as well as the 
machinery sector.  

A common data space for agricultural data based on existing approaches towards data sharing 
could  lead  to  a  neutral  platform  for  sharing  and  pooling  agricultural  data,  including  both 
private  and  public  data.  This  could  support  the  emergence  of  an  innovative  data-driven 
ecosystem  based  on  fair  contractual  relations  as  well  as  strengthen  the  capacities  for 
monitoring  and  implementing  common  policies  and  reducing  administrative  burden  for 

66 Article 24 Directive (EU) 2019/944. 

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government  and  beneficiaries.  In  2019,  Member  States  have  joined  forces  and  signed  a 
declaration  of  cooperation  ‘A  smart  and  sustainable  digital  future  for  European  agriculture 
and  rural  areas’67,  which  recognises  the  potential  of  digital  technologies  for  the  agricultural 
sector and rural areas and supports the setting up of data spaces.  

The Commission will:  

  Take stock with Member States and stakeholder organisations of experiences gained with 
the  stakeholder  code  of  conduct  on  agricultural  data  sharing  by  contractual  agreement, 
also on the basis of the current market for digital farm solutions and their requirements in 
terms of data availability and use (Q3/Q4 2020). 

  Take stock of agricultural data spaces in current use, including funded under the Horizon 
2020 programme, with stakeholders and Member State organisations and take decision on 
an EU approach (Q4 2020/Q1 2021). 

8.  Common European  data spaces for public administrations  

Public  administrations  are  big  producers  and  also  users  of  data  in  different  areas.  The  data 
spaces for public administrations will reflect this. Actions in this areas will focus on law and 
public procurement data and other areas of public interest such as data use for improving law 
enforcement in the EU in line with EU law, including the principle of proportionality and data 
protection rules. 

Public  procurement  data  are  essential  to  improve  transparency  and  accountability  of  public 
spending,  fighting  corruption  and  improving  spending  quality.  Public  procurement  data  is 
spread over several systems in the Member States, made available in different formats and is 
not  easily  possible  to  use  for  policy  purposes  in  real-time.  In  many  cases,  the  data  quality 
needs to be improved. 

Similarly,  seamless  access  to  and  easy  reuse  of  EU  and  Member  State  legislation, 
jurisprudence as well as information on e-justice services is critical not only for the effective 
application  of  EU  law  but  also  enables  innovative  ‘legal  tech’  applications  supporting 
practitioners (judges, public officials, corporate counsel and lawyers in private practice). 

The Commission will: 

  Elaborate a data initiative for public procurement data covering both  the EU dimension 
(EU datasets, such as TED68) and the national ones (Q4 2020). It will be complemented 
by a procurement data governance framework (Q2 2021);  
Issue  guidance  on  common  standards  as  well  as  interoperable  frameworks  for  legal 
information69  held  at  European  and  national  level,  in  close  cooperation  with  Member 
States (Q1 2021); 

 

67  The  declaration  has  been  signed  by  25  Member  States.  For  further  information  on  the  declaration,  see 
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/eu-member-states-join-forces-digitalisation-european-
agriculture-and-rural-areas. 
68 Tenders Electronic Daily.  

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  work with Member States to ensure that data sources related to the implementation of the 

EU budget are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR). 

9.  Common European skills data space  

The skills of its people are Europe’s strongest asset. In a global race for talent, the European 
education and training systems and labour markets need to quickly adapt to new and emerging 
skills needs. This requires high-quality data on qualifications, learning opportunities, jobs and 
the skill sets of people. Over the past years, the Commission has put in place a range of open 
standards,  reference  frameworks  and  semantic  assets  to  increase  data  quality  and 
interoperability70. As announced in the Digital Education Action Plan71, the Commission also 
developed  the  Europass  Digital  Credentials  framework  to  issue  credentials  to  learners  in  a 
secure and interoperable digital format. 

The Commission will: 

  Support Member States in the development of digital credential transformation plans and 
in  the  preparation  of  re-usable  data-sets  of  qualifications  and  learning  opportunities 
(2020-2022); 

  Establish  a  governance  model  for  the  on-going  management  of  the  Europass  Digital 
Credentials  Framework  in  close  cooperation  with  Member  States  and  key  stakeholders 
(by 2022). 

10. European Open Science Cloud 

In addition to the creation of nine Common European data spaces, work will continue on the 
European  Open  Science  Cloud,  which  provides  seamless  access  and  reliable  re-use  of 
research  data  to  European  researchers,  innovators,  companies  and  citizens  through  a  trusted 
and  open  distributed  data  environment  and  related  services.  The  European  Open  Science 
Cloud is therefore the basis for a science, research and innovation data space that will bring 
together data resulting from research and deployment programmes and will be connected and 
fully articulated with the sectoral data spaces.  

The Commission will: 

  Deploy  European  Open  Science  Cloud  operations  to  serve  EU  researchers  by  2025; 
Steer  the  underpinning  development  of  a  stakeholder-driven  EOSC  governance 
structures,  possibly  in  connection  with  the  launch  of  the  corresponding  EOSC 
European partnership by end 2020;  

69 E.g. on the  use of the ELI and ECLI identifiers and on publishing  law online  with an  official translation in 
order to support the further use of machine translation. 
70  E.g.  Europass  Learning  Model;  European  Qualifications  Framework  for  lifelong  learning  (EQF);  European 
Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO), Digital Competence Framework (DigComp). 
71 COM(2018)22 final. 

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 

In  the  medium  term,  open  up,  connect  and  articulate  EOSC  beyond  the  research 
communities, with the wider public sector and the private sector from 2024 onwards. 

34