Europe's Data Strategy

Last month, the EU took steps to flesh out their emerging digital strategy with the release of two white papers, one on AI regulation, and the other on a European data strategy. In a previous post, we looked at the EU's plans for AI regulation, and the lessons the U.S. should be taking from their approach. In this post, we turn to the EU's data strategy, which lays out an action plan for the EU as it works to take advantage on the opportunities presented by the data economy. Most of the proposals included in the EU's white paper stick close to what are by now familiar themes for government digital strategies: the opening of high-value public datasets for private use, investment in building digital skills among individuals and SMEs, the promotion of new technical standards to improve interoperability, and the strengthening of governance mechanisms to facilitate the flow of data across and within sectors. But two of the strategy's goals reveal more ambitious plans by the EU.