BITKOM, the German Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media, considers the completion of the Digital Single Market the key area of action to trigger growth, create jobs and boost investment in Europe. Unleashing the full potential of a single market of more than 500 million citizens would not only benefit consumers but also build a home market on the basis of which European companies could better compete at the global level.

Areas for action at EU level

In BITKOM’s view the following measures are vital to create a favourable environment for the ICT sector in Europe and to boost the digital single market.

Making Europe an IT hotspot

Startups: building up an ecosystem for fast-growing tech startups

- Mobilise venture capital: allow institutional investors to invest in startups, make losses from investments in startups tax-deductible, exempt venture capital funds from commercial tax. - Free founding phase from bureaucracy: reduce administrative and le-gal requirements during the first four years to the minimum strictly necessary. - Create hubs: develop the startup scene around technology centres, build bridges with established industries.

Europe as location for innovation: ameliorate competitive conditions for both IT-SMEs and global players

- Tax incentives for research and innovation for all companies no matter their size. - Focus cluster and project support on Industrie 4.0, smart services, in-telligent networks, security, big data and other strategic fields of tech-nology. - Create a level playing field for big data and data protection.

Education and immigration: meet the present and future demand for skilled workers

- Use education as a strategic tool for innovation policy: strengthen STEM subjects in secondary and higher education, get young people interested in IT. - Better tap the existing potential: increase employment of women in IT, keep experienced workers in the IT industry. - Attract the best to Europe: increase immigration through active loca-tion marketing, facilitate immigration.

Digital infrastructures: rollout of intelligent networks

Broadband: prepare Europe for the gigabit society

- Supply rural areas: support broadband rollout in under-supplied and economically non-viable regions in a technologically-neutral way. - Provide spectrum: free spectrum for mobile networks to further the digital agenda goals. - Guarantee planning certainty: make access and termination fee regu-lation predictable, reduce market interventions, create incentives for investment and permanently allow for quality classes next to the best effort internet access.

Intelligent networks: digitise infrastructures for energy, transport, health, administration and education

- Smart grids: bring energy prices in line with production costs, provide incentives for investments in IT-based energy networks, use open standards for smart home. - Intelligent transport networks: provide a framework architecture for mobility data, initiate pilot projects for intelligent transport networks, interconnect transport management centres. - E-health: tap the full potential of electronic health cards, make tele-medicine reimbursable in national health insurance systems. - E-learning: introduce digital education methods in teachers’ training curricula, provide funds for primary, secondary and higher education IT networks. - E-government: make all public services accessible online, abolish the requirement for written form, support public private partnerships.

Datacentres: make Europe an attractive location for datacentres as part of the digital basis

- Energy costs: recognize the risk of carbon leakage for datacentres and make it possible to exempt energy efficient datacentres from fees such as the German renewable energies levy. - Energy production: recognize datacentres as energy producers. - Adapt spatial planning regulations for new data centres.

Digital society: cater for the highest level of trust and security

IT Security: achieve digital sovereignty

- Increase capacity: set up university chairs for IT security in all engi-neering faculties, fund scholarship programmes for IT security, extend funding for IT security in higher education. - Support businesses formation and development: build-up a startup incubator for IT security, create clusters of excellence for IT security. - Securing vital IT security resources (e.g. companies, patens, research institutes), create a register of IT security providers.

Data protection: create harmonized international rules

- Regulatory framework: adopt EU general data protection regulation, further harmonise international data protection rules. - Protection from surveillance: review international agreements on sur-veillance measures and handing-over of data and, if necessary, rene-gotiate them. - Enforcement: ensure reliable implementation of legal requirements using proportionate sanctions.

Awareness and empowerment: enable businesses, public administration and consumers to protect themselves against cyber-attacks

- Business: introduce business protection as a mandatory module in business studies, increase IT security in IT higher education, introduce IT audits and notification requirements for critical infrastructures. - Public administration: use the public sector as development partner and lead user. - Consumers: introduce or strengthen existing citizen CERT, teach IT security in schools.

About BITKOM

BITKOM represents more than 2,200 companies in the digital sector, including 1,400 direct members. With more than 700,000 employees, our members generate a turnover of 190 billion Euros a year, including exports of high-tech goods and services worth 50 billion Euros. Comprising 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses as well as more than 250 start-ups and nearly all global players, BITKOM’ members offer a wide range of software technologies, IT-services, and telecommunications or internet services. They produce hardware and consumer electronics or operate in the sectors of digital media and the network industry. 76 percent of the companies’ headquarters are located in Germany with an additional 10 percent in other EU member states and 9 percent in the USA as well as 5 percent in other regions. BITKOM supports an innovation-centred economic policy by focussing on the modernization of the education sector and a future-oriented network policy.