ACM Europe Policy Committee
December 2015 newsletter
H2020 review and assessment
Following a number of discussions between the ACM Europe Policy Committee EUACM leadership and senior authorities in the European Commission responsible for Excellence in Science in the H2020 programme, some ACM European experts have been selected to serve as advisors in the first major review of the H2020 programme, after the completion of the first work programme 2014-2015. More ACM experts are likely to be invited in the near future. It is therefore important that all those ACM members who are willing to serve as experts register on the EC data base, regardless from their location within EU member states or outside.
The present chair of the ACM Europe Council, Dame Wendy Hall, has been invited to speak in a senior panel at CeBIT 2016 in Hanover. The present chair of EUACM, Fabrizio Gagliardi, will speak at the “Towards an European Framework for the ICT Profession” workshop on February 4th invited by a European Commission sponsored initiative to promote IT skills in industry.
LAW AND POLICY
Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Single Market, summarized theactions taken towards the Digital Single Market. He mentioned, especially, the last proposals presented by the European Commission:on digital contract rules to simplify and promote access to digital content and online sales across the EU andabout broadening access to online content and outlines its vision to modernise EU copyright rules.
● Copyright & Open data
On December, 9th, a European Commission Communication was presented to the Parliament and Council:Towards a modern, more European copyright framework
On December 16, after an intense round of negotiations among United Nations member states, the UN General Assembly adopted the finaloutcome document on the ten-year review of the implementation of theWorld Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+10).
● Cybersecurity & Data protection
Concerns were raised on theInvestigatory Powers Bill, presented to the UK House of Commons last November. Apple was the first company to call for changes to the bill, especially regarding the user's security. According to this bill, the security services will have the authority to hack into computers. There is anopen inquiry about the bill.
Several organization (European Digital Rights (EDRi),Bits of Freedom,DigitaleGesellschafte.V,Open Rights Group (ORG),Digital Rights Ireland andPrivacy International) presented astatement about the vote of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee on theData Protection Package.
● Internet of Things
The Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) Policy Working Group presented theirpolicy recommendations regarding a Digital Single Market for the Internet of Things (IoT).
● Other news
The European Council approved an agreement with the Parliament and the Commission about“Better Law Making”, highlighting the relevance of transparency and taking public consultations into account.EDRi raised concerns about some aspects of it. An open consultationon the transparency of trialogues is opened until the end of March.
HORIZON 2020 NEWS
DG Roberto Viola released anarticle on Brain-Neural Computer Interfaces, highlighting its relevance within a specificHorizon 2020 project. Anew call on interfaces for accessibility is open until April 2017.
OPEN CONSULTATIONS
●eGovernment action plan 2016-2020 (Open until January, 22nd)
●Review of national wholesale roaming markets, fair use policy and the sustainability mechanism referred to in the Roaming Regulation 531/2012 as amended by Regulation 2015/2120 (Open until February, 18th)
●Public-private partnership on cybersecurity (Open until March, 11th)
●Regulatory environment for platforms, online intermediaries, data and cloud computing and the collaborative economy.(Open until January, 6th)