Activites

• 2014/11/27 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T8-0071/2014 summary

    The European Parliament adopted by 384 votes to 74, with 56 abstentions, a resolution tabled by the EPP and S&D groups on supporting consumer rights in the digital single market. Parliament called on the Member States and the Commission, as part of an overarching strategy, to address all existing barriers that are hindering the development of the digital single market. The digital single market offers potential for high-efficiency gains that could amount to EUR 260 billion per year, which, it is estimated, could save consumers more than EUR 11.7 billion a year if they could choose from the full range of EU goods and services when shopping online. The resolution focused on the following issues: the need at European level to monitor and prevent the abuse of dominant positions in terms of the availability of goods to consumers; the need to tackle and combat the digital divide in order to fully grasp the potential of the digital single market and to enable the inclusion of all citizens, regardless of their income, social situation, geographical location, health or age, in society in the digital era; the need to ensure the swift implementation of the single market for services and to ensure the implementation and enforcement of rules such as the Consumer Rights Directive, alternative dispute resolution and online dispute resolution; the need to implement the European strategy to guarantee competitive and secure cloud computing. Parliament called for the swift adoption of the new modernised Data Protection Package in order to provide an appropriate balance between a high level of protection of personal data, user safety and control over one’s personal data and a stable, predictable legislative environment in which businesses can flourish in an enhanced single market for the benefit of end-users, a level playing field fostering investment, and an environment contributing to the attractiveness of the EU as a destination for businesses. It called on the Commission and the Member States to allocate the necessary resources to fight cybercrime by means of legislative measures and law enforcement cooperation, at both national and EU level. The Council is urged to make swift progress and open negotiations with Parliament on the proposal for a regulation laying down measures concerning the European single market for electronic communications and to achieve a Connected Continent. This regulation could constitute a crucial step towards realising a single European mobile market. The Commission is invited to: create and ensure a legislative and legally certain environment conducive to encouraging creativity and innovation for start-ups, micro-enterprises and SMEs; put forward an initiative for digital entrepreneurship, including measures to improve access to finance for new digital entrepreneurs (for instance through crowd sourcing) and encourage second chances for failed entrepreneurs; enforce EU competition rules decisively, based on input from all relevant stakeholders and taking into account the entire structure of the digital single market in order to ensure remedies that truly benefit consumers, internet users and online businesses; consider proposals aimed at unbundling search engines from other commercial services; act quickly to consider potential solutions tending towards a balanced, fair and open internet search structure; continue, with the Member States, to further develop and implement EU and national regulatory frameworks in order to allow an integrated and secure online and mobile payments market, while ensuring the protection of consumers and customer data; take the lead in promoting international standards and specifications for cloud computing, which enable privacy-friendly, reliable, accessible, highly interoperable, secure and energy-efficient cloud services as an integral part of a future Union industrial policy. Parliament stressed the need to ensure internet safety online, in particular for children, and to prevent child exploitation by ensuring that means are in place to detect and eradicate illegal child abuse images on the internet and by enabling means to prevent children and adolescents accessing age-restricted content. Lastly, it encouraged swift adoption and enactment of international provisions facilitating access of disabled users to digital content and to printed works through their digitisation.

• 2014/11/26 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament

Documents

• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0071/2014

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)