Policy towards the Internet and the Digital Single Market will be key to modernising the industrial, social and democratic fabric of Europe. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) offers the following ideas on how digital single market policy should be designed to ensure the EU remains competitive and open, thus economically vibrant.

As the Commission prepares its strategy in this area it must choose policy which incentivises investment and innovation by companies from all over the world, and in all parts of the technology value chain. It should encourage European firms to innovate in and adopt technology. It should resist calls to favour ‘European’ businesses over their ‘International’ competitors. Such an approach would be detrimental to all innovators, whatever their parentage, and would damage Europe’s wider economy, which is dependent on technological innovation to remain productive and competitive.

As this report 'The Internet - The New Helping the Old' the major benefits of technology are captured by non-technology businesses that implement these technologies. Importantly, while Europe gained more productivity benefits from technology up until 1995, since 1995 it has falled behind the US. It seems that the US has taken better advantage of the Internet. Certain EU  countries, like Latvia and Estonia, have been very successful at capturing the value of the Internet. Others need to catch up. 

The following principles should be borne in mind when building policy for a Digital Single Market:

1. Policy for a digital single market should be pro-innovation;
2. Policy for a rapidly changing economy should be based on data and evidence;
3. Policy for a Digital Single Market should be focused on delivering benefits to consumers and users, not on safeguarding company interests or as a tool of industrial policy;
4. All technological innovation in a Digital Single Market must be treated equally whether its origin is ‘national’, European or International;
5. Rules should be future proof and flexible, able to adapt to new technologies and market entrants, not targeted at today’s firms
6. A digital single market must ensure that the country of origin principle is retained for all (digital) services;
7. Policy must ensure that new rules introduced by member states do not fragment the Digital Single Market;
8. Policy for a Digital Single Market should encourage European firms to invest and trade internationally, and international firms to invest and trade in Europe;
9. European Commission Impact assessments should require that proposals support the digitisation of the economy;
10. European industrial interests and consumers benefit from competitive, well-functioning markets and not from competition policy that seeks to advance ‘domestic’ interests;
11. Policy for a Digital Single Market should in equal part support ‘D’ for Digital, ‘S’ for Single and ‘M’ for a Market. All three parts of this equation are necessary;

Key actions and ideas for the building of a digital single market can be found in the CCIA manifesto 'Embracing the Internet Opportunity: A programme for modernising the industrial, social and democratic fabric of Europe'. These include:

• promoting the use of the Internet throughout Europe's economy and society
• create the right conditions for Europe's Internet innovators
• protect the open, global Internet
• promote consumer choice in ecommerce
• put European citizens at the centre of Internet policy and ensure they enjoy access to the widest range of information through the Internet.
• ensure citizens and employees have the necessary skills to benefit from the Internet opportunity.
• create a balanced IPR regime with flexibility for citizens and innovators. Develop a program of Internet Literacy
• encourage competitive provision of high bandwidth broadband networks
• ensure that information can flow freely while safeguarding consumers
• embrace new forms of activity such as the sharing economy
• ensure the adoption of an ambitious data protection regulation that serves the needs of citizens and a knowledge and data intensive economy.

Finally, evidence is needed to support all policy intitiatives whether of an economic or social nature. This ensures a comments understand of goals and any problems.

With this in mind discussions about online platforms currently fail to provide a proper understanding of what a platform is. The idea of 'platform neutrality' could in fact drive us towards a neutral economy, as explained in this CCIA paper.