Commissioner Kroes emphasises importance of single digital market

Eurocommissioner for the Information Society Neelie Kroes held the keynote speech yesterday at ICTDelta2010. In that speech, she emphasised the importance of a single digital market for a healthy information society.

In the lecture, Kroes spoke elaborately about the necessity for the EU to create the conditions so that IT firms can function properly. As a liberal, Kroes sees as her most important task to set the stage for a healthy market. Harmonising copyright to create licences for distributing digital content that are valid throughout the EU is an important part of that, said Kroes.

In April, the Directorate General for the Information Society, chaired by Kroes, publishes its plans in the form of the Digital Agenda.

Stimulating broadband access is another key issue in this Digital Agenda. In 2020, everyone in the EU needs to be able to access the Internet with a connection of at least 30 Mbit/s. Half of EU citizens should be connected with 100 Mbit/s or higher.

19 March 2010