Urve Palo, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, confirmed to the European Parliament's commissions that the Estonian Trio Presidency with Bulgaria and Austria has set the goal of reaching an agreement on all digital single market files by the end of next year.
"Digital Europe is a priority for the Estonian Presidency and the free movement of data must become the fifth freedom of the European Union in addition to the free movement of people, capital, goods and services," said Palo.
She added that Estonia intends to focus on creating the preconditions for a digital economy by creating a legal framework for the telecommunications sector and agreeing with the Member States on how to move forward with faster and more reliable 5G Internet access in the future.
"The Electronic Communications Code should increase investments and encourage competition and the development of new services," Palo said.
The Estonian Presidency will monitor the implementation of the eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 and launch a discussion on long-term European eGovernment plans, culminating in the Ministerial Meeting and eGovernment Declaration in October.
According to Palo, it is also important to bring down the prices of parcel delivery and successfully complete the negotiations with the European Parliament.
Yesterday and today in Brussels, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Urve Palo presented the most important topics of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the European Parliament's committees. Minister Palo attended the hearings of the Committee on International Trade, Industry, Research and Energy and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and met with Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and Digital Economy and Society Commissioner Mariya Gabriel.