Ahead of the adoption of her draft opinion on the 'European Cloud Initiative and ICT Standardisation Priorities for the Digital Single Market' by the October CoR plenary session, we spoke with PES rapporteur Anne Karjalainen, Member of Kerava City Council (Finland).
How can the European Commission initiatives on the European Cloud and on ICT standardisation priorities concretely facilitate the work of local and regional authorities?
One example of the benefits of cloud services is the European Open Science Cloud, which incorporates public authority, business and research data, and can use Big Data processing methods to facilitate for instance the handling of municipal policy matters, which are often multidimensional and complex. Unfortunately not all of those concerned understand yet the utility of opening up their data so that Europe's economy can benefit to the full from the new cloud service and associated high-performance computing.
Of the standardisation priorities I would single out the internet of things. I don't know when my fridge will start ordering food that has run out on its own initiative or when my car will be able to come and pick me up, without a driver, just by clicking my fingers. But I am certain that sensors, gadgets, robots etc. connected to various information networks will steadily, and eventually also rapidly, become more important in how we deliver public services in Europe. Europe's local and regional authorities will need a great deal of new information and know-how relating to this potential and to existing good practices.
Finally it should be noted that none of these great things presented by the Commission will work unless adequate connectivity is available across the Union. Unless this is achieved the future benefits of, say, the internet of things or new health services will be distributed very unevenly in Europe.
How can the lack of interoperability, which greatly hinders cross-border services, be effectively addressed?
Common standards ensure the interoperability of digital technologies, which is the foundation of an effective Digital Single Market. The common denominator of these two communications – on the European Cloud Initiative and ICT standardisation priorities – is the lack of interoperability in many different sectors, which results in researchers, industry, public authorities and policy-makers being unable to access the data they need. In Europe we still face too many technical, legal and cultural barriers to making existing knowledge available across sectoral and organisational boundaries to all those who need it.
I would thank the Commission for having found, in the European Open Science Cloud, an effective spearhead to promote data sharing. The members of our Committee consider it important that universities and other scientific communities located in our regions should be able to do their research on the basis of broader, up-to-the-minute data. The Commission's objective is to expand open cloud services at some point to also benefit the public sector – as both a producer and a user of data.
The greatest obstacle to interoperability in relation to such data sharing as cross-border digital services, for example, is usually the lack of a standardised data architecture. It is already several years since the publication of the European Interoperability Framework for European Public Services, and I therefore welcome the Commission's plan to update it and hope that the potential of the internet of things will also be considered in this process. It should be pointed out that lack of interoperability makes it difficult to address major social challenges, which require efficient data sharing and a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder approach.
