Ambassador of Estonia to the European Union Matti Maasikas, who represented Estonia at the meeting, said that the main topics of discussion at this week’s European Council meeting is the digital economy, innovation, and services. Ambassador Matti Maasikas maintains that the Council will evaluate the current state of the digital development action plan and provide specific guidelines to achieve the digital single market by 2015.
According to Matti Maasikas, Estonia strongly supports the process of forming a functioning digital single market in order to eliminate fragmentation, create a more advantageous environment for the advancement of cross-border services, and develop a framework for taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the cloud-based data industry.
"The Council must come to an agreement and set specific deadlines regarding certain legal acts of key importance which are still in the negotiation phase," said Maasikas.
"We must move forward quickly with not only the digital trust management services statute that is necessary for electronic identification and electronic business management but also with the discussion regarding network and information security," noted Maasikas. "It is necessary to continue discussing the packages suggested by the European Commission regarding electronic communication in the single market so as to arrive at a cross-border communication system which functions as a single market," added Maasikas.
Ambassador Maasikas confirms that the European Council will also discuss economic and social policy and the debate about the future of the European Union’s economic and monetary union. Additionally, the Lithuanian Presidency will inform the European Council about preparations for the upcoming high-level meeting about the Eastern Partnership taking place in Vilnius on 28-29 November.
The General Affairs Council also approves conclusions about the achievements and added value of the macro-regional strategies. Ambassador Matti Maasikas asserted that the Baltic Sea Strategy, which was adopted in 2009 and whose initiators in the European Parliament included Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has proven itself to be effective in Estonia’s experience by effective coordination of cooperation and projects which have delivered concrete results. The EU’s second macro-regional strategy, the Danube Strategy, was approved in 2011.
The General Affairs Council confirmed the opening of a chapter on regional policy and coordination of structural instruments with Turkey, and thoughts were Exchange about the experiences gained from the European semester in 2013.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Juhan Tere
Quelle/Source: The Baltic Course, 23.10.2013
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