A harmonized plan for data sharing in the European Union. This is the goal of the Data Act, published by the European Commission in 2022. The new law aims to increase the availability of data and to build a secure environment for sharing and reusing data for innovation and research purposes.
Objectives of the Data Act
Today, Industry 4.0 is based on principles such as the Internet of Things and Big Data that require the availability and accessibility of data. It therefore becomes essential to build the foundations at European level for a broader, faster and safer new data management.
The Data Act aims to make data more accessible and stimulate a competitive data market. At the same time, the European Commission wants to ensure equity and security in the digital environment. For this reason, the proposal also sets out the rules for accessing data, for example who can use it and for what purposes in the various economic sectors of the EU.
Specifically, the main objectives of the Data Act are:
- Increased availability of usable data.
- More efficient access to data.
- Correctness and transparency of access and use of data in commercial relationships.
- Data access and use regulation.
- Create new opportunities for data-based innovation.
- Promote new and innovative services, with more competitive prices.
With this, the Commission wants to support digital transformation in line with the objectives of the strategic program for 2030. This should create an additional 270 billion euros of GDP by 2028.
Data Governance Act, Data Ac and next steps
The Data Act proposal is the second major European regulatory initiative in the sector. In fact, it completes the Data Governance Act (DGA), definitively approved by the Council of the EU on May 16, 2022. These are two important horizontal elements of the Commission’s data strategy aimed at making the European Union a leader. in the industry of the future, increasingly data driven.
The difference between the Data Governance Act and the Data Act is that where the DGA law strengthens the governance mechanism of the single market and establishes a framework to facilitate the sharing of general and sectoral data, the new Data Act concerns effective rights on access and use. some data.
What are the next steps? In the coming weeks, the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the co-legislators will evaluate and discuss the new legislative proposal. Once the negotiations with the European Commission have been concluded, since it is a regulation, the legislative act will be immediately applicable in all Member States.