Within the European Union, a directorate-general is a branch of an administration dedicated to a specific field of expertise.
The European Commission (EC) is an institution of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU. Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City, pledging to respect the treaties and to be completely independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate. Unlike in the Council of the European Union, where members are directly and indirectly elected, and the European Parliament, where members are directly elected, the Commissioners are proposed by the Council of the European Union, on the basis of suggestions made by the national governments, and then appointed by the European Council after the approval of the European Parliament.
Europe 2020 is a 10-year strategy proposed by the European Commission on 3 March 2010 for advancement of the economy of the European Union. It aims at "smart, sustainable, inclusive growth" with greater coordination of national and European policy. It follows the Lisbon Strategy for the period 2000–2010.
The Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society is a member of the European Commission responsible for media and information issues such as telecoms and IT. Mariya Gabriel has held this office since 2017.
Background
On 1 July 2012 DG Connect replaced the DG for Information Society & Media (DG INFSO).[3] The mission will also change and large staff cuts are foreseen (from 1 January 2013 a substantial part of the ex-INFSO agenda will be externalised). DG INFSO was previously known as DG XIII. Until 2004, the DG shared Commissioner with DG Enterprise.
From January 2005, DG Information Society was expanded to include Media (formerly under DG Education and Culture). DG INFSO deals with research, policy and regulation on the areas of information and communication technology and media. Its regulation has cultural, societal and economic objectives, and covers some of the largest economic sectors in Europe, as well as some of the most visible. The DG is however not responsible for some general economic and market issues central to information society policies like intellectual property issues.
An information society is a society where the creation, distribution, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political, and cultural activity. Its main drivers are digital information and communication technologies, which have resulted in an information explosion and are profoundly changing all aspects of social organization, including the economy, education, health, warfare, government and democracy. The people who have the means to partake in this form of society are sometimes called digital citizens, defined by K. Mossberger as “Those who use the Internet regularly and effectively”. This is one of many dozen labels that have been identified to suggest that humans are entering a new phase of society.
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. Intellectual property encompasses two types of rights; industrial property rights and copyright. It was not until the 19th century that the term "intellectual property" began to be used, and not until the late 20th century that it became commonplace in the majority of the world.
DG Connect is concerned with the use of Information and communication technologies (ICTs).
The DG's role is to;
conceive and implement the policies required to create a Digital Single Market for more growth and jobs, where citizens, businesses, and public administrations can seamlessly and fairly access and provide digital goods, content and services.
foster a modern, secure, open, and pluralistic society building on Europe's cultural diversity, creativity and respect of creators' rights and values such as democracy, freedom of expression and tolerance.
help drive the digital transformation of European industry and public services through the use of innovative digital technology and support for the development of digital skills.
develop a long-term vision investing in potential technology breakthroughs and flagships, which can improve peoples' lives and to increase the competitiveness of the European economy at large and its key sectors.[4]
The Digital Single Market is a policy belonging to the European Single Market that covers digital marketing, E-commerce and telecommunications. It was announced in May 2015 by the Juncker Commission.
Democracy is a system of government where the citizens exercise power by voting. In a direct democracy, the citizens as a whole form a governing body and vote directly on each issue. In a representative democracy the citizens elect representatives from among themselves. These representatives meet to form a governing body, such as a legislature. In a constitutional democracy the powers of the majority are exercised within the framework of a representative democracy, but the constitution limits the majority and protects the minority, usually through the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech, or freedom of association. "Rule of the majority" is sometimes referred to as democracy. Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes.
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The term "freedom of expression" is sometimes used synonymously but includes any act of seeking, receiving, and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used.
Structure
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Directorates:
A: Digital Industry (Director: Khalil ROUHANA)
The directorate's objective is to strengthen the competitiveness and to ensure that any industry in any sector in Europe can make the best use of digital innovations to compete on a global scale, grow and create jobs. The directorate is responsible for the coordination of the digitisation of industry strategy following the adoption of the DSM technology package in April 2016 including links with national initiatives such as Industrie 4.0 (DE), industrie du future (FR), smart industry (NL), etc.[5]
Industry 4.0 is a name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing. Industry 4.0 is commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution.
B: Electronic Communications Networks & Services (Director: Anthony WHELAN)
Designing and monitoring a legally predictable (regulatory) environment for electronic communications in the EU. As the basis for the Digital Single Market, this environment should foster a pro-competitive single market for the roll-out of high-speed internet networks and the delivery of electronic communications services. This will be an essential contribution to boost innovation, growth and jobs in Europe.[5]
C: Digital Excellence and Science Infrastructure (Director: Thomas SKORDAS)
To ensure leadership in future ICT Technologies and Infrastructures and to help transform the way research is conceived, practiced, disseminated and used.[5]
D: Policy Strategy and Outreach (Director: Linda CORUGEDO STENEBERG)
The Policy Strategy and Outreach Directorate is responsible for the consistent implementation of the Commission Work Programme and the legislation under the responsibility of DG CONNECT in line with better regulation principles.
It is the outward-facing element of the DG, responsible for involving stakeholders in delivering policy and research outcomes, engaging with member states' authorities and the other institutions, the media and other interested stakeholders, and for communicating within and outside the EU and managing internal communication with in the DG.[5]
E: Future Networks (Director: Pearse O'DONOHUE)
The Directorate is responsible for strategic advancement of the policy, technological research and standardisation on all-encompassing Future Internet dimension, ensuring an innovative intertwining of all these aspects so that Europe can lead in the design, piloting and roll-out of the Internet of tomorrow. Its strategic agenda focuses on components that are crucial for the digital economy, including 5G global policy advancement, research, innovation and deployment of future mobile systems, strategic use of spectrum, implementation of cloud policies, support to software strategy and implementation of a common European IoT agenda, while addressing a long term perspective for the Internet. It promotes large-scale, experimentally-driven research, validation and piloting of future Internet systems, services and architectures. It implements an innovative industrial strategy exploring the benefits of Internet to all sectors of economy and society in line with the priorities on digitisation of the European economy. The Directorate acts as a centre of competence for DSM-related issues on Cloud policies, Free-Flow of Data and IoT liability with stakes on open service platforms. The Directorate acts from a global perspective, exploiting multilateral cooperation and reinforcing Internet governance.[5]
F: Digital Single Market (Director: Gerard de GRAAF)
Directorate F is responsible for defining and implementing the overall strategy for the digital economy and society. It will develop, coordinate and steer the Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy and monitor its effective implementation in the context of the European semester based on socioeconomic data on the digital society and economy. It has direct responsibility for e-commerce, geoblocking and platforms. It will also develop and implement the innovation strategy in particular geared towards web-tech and start-up companies and the development of digital skills.[5]
G: Data (Director: Javier HERNANDEZ-ROS)
The mission of Directorate G is threefold: to set up framework conditions for a thriving European data economy, to exploit the potential of the European cultural heritage and creative industries; to contribute to removing digital barriers that lead to social and economic disparities, such as language, accessibility and education.
H: Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity (Director: Despina SPANOU)
To improve the life of citizens, the opportunities for companies and the quality of public administrations in major areas of society and economy. To provide a strategic approach to the societal dimension of the DSM, focusing on applications that combine digital policy, digital Research and Innovation, and deployment and provide for leadership in cyber security and digital privacy and digital trust policy, legislation and innovation. To pay specific attention to the interplay of EU digital policy and digital technologies with EU policy in application areas such as transport, energy, climate, environment, health, ageing, employment, public sector, security and data protection. To provide for the co-chairing of the health, innovation/inclusion and security societal challenges of Horizon 2020. As many of the societal challenges are global it has a strong international involvement.[5]
I: Media Policy (Director: Giuseppe ABBAMONTE)
The Directorate supports the development of a competitive European audiovisual and media industry able to reach out to new audiences and thrive in the Digital Single Market. The Directorate ensures that the audiovisual and copyright legislative frameworks are fit for purpose in the digital era and promote the circulation of works across borders and reward innovation. Through support actions it fosters the creation, distribution and promotion of European works across Europe and beyond. It supports research on new technologies and services resulting from convergence and social media in any device and mobile environments.
The Directorate promotes the freedom and pluralism of the media, protection and consumers, minors and cultural and linguistic diversity. It contributes to this goal through its legislative framework and by complementing the activities of the Member States by monitoring the threats to media independence and journalists across the EU. The Directorate promotes Europe's cultural diversity and production of news on European affairs with a European perspective.[5]
R: Resources and Support (Director: Gail KENT)
To support DG Connect's people and operations, including those related to research projects in H2020, CEF, FP7 and CIP, as well as to promote and verify compliance with essential procedures.[5]
Resources
DG Connect is one of the larger DGs in the European Commission with around 1100 employees in Brussels and Luxembourg, and around one fifth of the total EU research budget. A significant part of its activities is devoted to research in areas where it can provide stimulus and support to Member State research, including coordination, co-operation, standardisation and long-term basic research activities.
The secretariat of the European Parliament is the administrative body of the European Parliament headed by a Secretary-General. It is based in the Kirchberg district of Luxembourg City and around the Brussels-Luxembourg Station in Brussels and employs 4000 officials.
The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, located in Brussels, and responsible for the European Union's research and innovation policy and coordination of research and innovation activities. It is headed by Commissioner Carlos Moedas and Director-General Jean-Eric Paquet.
The Directorate-General for Environment is a Directorate-General of the European Commission, responsible for the European Union policy area of the environment.
The Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport is a Directorate-General of the European Commission responsible for transport within the European Union.
The Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) is an Executive Agency of the European Commission. EASME was founded in 2003 as the Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (IEEA) and was renamed the European Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) in 2007, finally becoming EASME in 2014. It is responsible for managing specific programmes in the fields of energy, the environment, and business support. Its goal is to promote sustainable development while improving the competitiveness of European industries. While the Agency has its own legal identity, it reports to several Directorates-General of the European Commission, which remain responsible for programming and evaluation of the programmes.
The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP7 with "FP8" being named "Horizon 2020", are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the European Research Area (ERA). The specific objectives and actions vary between funding periods. In FP6 and FP7 focus was still in technological research, in Horizon 2020 the focus is in innovation, delivering economic growth faster and delivering solutions to end users that are often governmental agencies.
The Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. It is one of the thirty three DG's that are created and named to reflect their functions.
The Directorate-General for Trade is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. DG TRADE works on securing prosperity, solidarity and security in Europe and around the globe. It covers a wide area from manufactured goods to services, intellectual property and investment.
The Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development is one of the departments of the European Commission. It operates under the authority of the European Commissioner for International Cooperation & Development, Neven Mimica.
The Integral SatCom Initiative (ISI) was an Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) European Technology Platform (ETP) led by the European SatCom industry and supported by the European Commission to address Satellite Communications (SatCom) strategic research and innovation challenges. It gathered approximately 200 member organisations representing all the stakeholders of the European SatCom sector from 29 different countries. It included members from manufacturing industry, network operations and service provision, SMEs, research centres and academia, European and National Institutions. Some international research entities do also participate. In 2013, after a public call by the European Commission to re-structure ETPs to better fit Horizon 2020 interests, ISI formally merged with Net!Works ETP to form NetWorld ETP, bringing together almost 1,000 partner organisations. NetWorld would become the partner ETP in the contractual public-private innovation partnership on 5G Infrastructures with the EU in December 2013.
All European countries show eGovernment initiatives, mainly related to the improvement of governance at the national level. Significant eGovernment activities also take place at the European Commission level as well. There is an extensive list of eGovernment Fact Sheets maintained by the European Commission.
The Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs is a Directorate-General of the European Commission. The role of the body is to ensure the EU's security, to build a common EU migration and asylum policy, and to promote dialogue and cooperation with non-EU countries. Thereby, it contributes to the Area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ).
József Györkös is a Slovenian university professor and former politician. He graduated from the University of Maribor and has a PhD in computer science. He is currently director of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) and part time professor at that university, with research interest in information society and media convergence. For several years Györkös was a state secretary in the government of Republic of Slovenia. He grew up as a member of the Hungarian community in the multicultural environment of the city of Lendava/Lendva, Slovenia.
Diogo Vasconcelos was a Portuguese politician, who focused his work on innovation and on the fundamental role of ICT and next generation broadband for fostering innovation and supporting new decentralized models to address some of the major global societal challenges of the 21st century. Diogo addressed such issues as climate change, urbanization, globalization, ageing population, sustainable prosperity, democracy and citizen’s participation, etc. During his career, he worked with different governments in Europe and the Middle East, with the European Commission, with the UN’s High Commissioner for the Alliance of Civilizations and the European Investment Bank, OECD, among others.
The European environmental research and innovation policy is a set of strategies, actions and programmes to promote more and better research and innovation for building a resource-efficient and climate resilient society and economy in sync with the natural environment. It is based on the Europe 2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy and it realises the European Research Area (ERA) and Innovation Union in the field of environment. The aim of the European environmental research and innovation policy is to contribute to a transformative agenda for Europe in the coming years, where the quality of life of the citizens and the environment are steadily improved, in sync with the competitiveness of businesses, the societal inclusion and the management of resources.
The Research Executive Agency (REA) is an executive agency established by the European Commission in order to manage specific Community activities in the field of research and innovation. The REA's mission is to assist the Commission in achieving the objectives of the Research Framework Programmes and the EU strategies to foster growth through research and innovation. The agency started operating in 2009.
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