As you know, the presidency of the Council rotates among the EU member states every 6 months. During this 6-month period, the presidency chairs meetings at every level in the Council, helping to ensure the continuity of the EU’s work in the Council.
Member states holding the presidency work together closely in groups of three, called ‘trios’. This system was introduced by the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. The trio sets long-term goals and prepares a common agenda determining the topics and major issues that will be addressed by the Council over an 18 month period. On the basis of this programme, each of the three countries prepares its own more detailed 6-month programme.
The current trio is made up of the presidencies of the Germany, Portugal and Slovenia.
Set by the German government, the priorities of the EU during these six months are of course focused on overcoming the consequences of the coronavirus crisis for the long term as well as economic and social recovery.
More precisely, the German Presidency wishes to establish digital sovereignty as a leit- motiv of European digital policy and to work together with the member states on responses for approaching technical developments such as artificial intelligence and quantum technologies to ensure that, in the context of fair competition, the EU will increase its prosperity, protect its security and uphold its values. Germany wants to work to ensure that Europe has state-of-the-art skills in the field of key digital technologies while preserving the openness of the European single market. This includes consolidating a monitoring system for European digital capacities, a high level of public and private investment in strengthening digital capacities and a common understanding among the EU Member States regarding the definition of and path towards greater digital sovereignty. This also includes the establishment of a high-performance, sovereign and resilient European digital infrastructure.
In Europe’s data policy, Germany wants to place the focus on innovation, access to data, responsible data use, data skills and security. The Presidency wants to advance the discussion launched by the European Data Strategy on rules and guidelines for the governance of common European data spaces. Moreover, it wishes to continue the debate on the appropriate use of highquality datasets for digital services.
Germany strongly feels that a competitive European industrial sector and vibrant small and medium-sized enterprises are essential for mastering the digital and environmental transformation. Against this backdrop, the Presidency wants to continue to develop the Euro- pean Commission’s industrial and SME strategy in a forward-looking manner with the objective of strengthening European cooperation in innovative key technologies in particular. Within the framework of Council conclusions, it wants to inject impetus into strengthening the competitiveness of both European industry and small and medium-sized businesses. To this end, the German Presidency is discussing suitable frame- work conditions and the promotion of forward-looking innovations, as well as measures relating to financing, a substantial reduction in red tape and SME-friendly regulations. At an SME conference in November, the Presidency intends, among other issues, to discuss crossborder approaches to strengthening entrepreneurship, the digital transformation and innovation.
To read the full program of the German EU Presidency, please go to: https://www.eu2020.de/blob/2360248/e0312c50f910931819ab67f630d15b2f/06-30-pdf-programm-en-data.pdf