Berlin, 27. November 2019 - Today, the European Parliament officially confirmed the new college of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The new team of Commissioners will take up their work on 1 December. Bitkom President Achim Berg comments:
„ In the coming years, the European Commission under their new President Ursula von der Leyen will have to tackle plenty of work, in particular with regard to digital policies. The Digital Single Market, which was officially announced five years ago, will have to come to life in the first place. The Commission President already outlined that digital policies will be at the heart of her work. We welcome this unequivocally. We will only maintain our economic power and strengthen member states’ unity by addressing the digital transformation actively and with smart political initiatives.
Companies face monumental transformative processes and need to be supported so that they can compete in a global competition for future leadership in key technologies. The Digital Single Market is playing a decisive role: Harmonised European rules can allow domestic companies to grow and provide the EU with the necessary economic weight to stand up for its values.
At the same time, companies must be given leeway to enable their transformation and to develop new technologies. That is why we need a digital scrutiny reserve. Each upcoming regulation or directive will have to be checked for their respective impact on the EU’s competitiveness. Furthermore, research will have to be supported in a quick, easy and practice-oriented manner in order to strengthen knowledge transfer from our excellent academic environment right into the digital economy.
We wish the new President and her team a successful tenure and all the best of luck for addressing these pivotal tasks in the years to come.”