Urgent EU Action Needed to Spur Tech Competitiveness and Innovation – CCIA

Brussels, BELGIUM – As the European Parliament is now underway with its pivotal hearings of the 2024-2029 European Commission, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA Europe) calls on EU lawmakers to put competitiveness at the heart of digital policy, pointing to reports that advocate for a temporary pause in new tech laws. 

This urgent appeal comes amid growing concerns about Europe’s digital future, as highlighted in Mario Draghi’s competitiveness report and other studies underscoring the damaging effects of overregulation, which are expected to play a central role in the hearings. 

Draghi has issued a clear warning: excessive EU digital legislation risks stifling innovation and damaging Europe’s competitiveness at a time when global competition is heating up. National governments and businesses are already struggling to navigate the recent wave of EU tech rules – broad in scope, heavy in volume, and often disappointing in implementation. 

A recent study by J. Scott Marcus and Maria Alessandra Rossi for the European University Institute (EUI), Strengthening EU Digital Competitiveness: Stoking the Engine, reinforces this message. The authors stress that the EU “co-legislators should slow the pace of enactment of new laws for a few years in order to give firms and the Member States time to catch up with implementation” of the myriad of tech laws passed during the last legislative mandate. 

In response to these challenges, CCIA Europe has developed a Blueprint for Digital Innovation with targeted recommendations to safeguard the EU’s digital edge. A central focus is the need to give governments and the digital sector the necessary breathing room. 

The EU’s legislative process also needs much more scrutiny, as new concepts are often still introduced at the last moment without proper assessment, which frequently do not work in practice. Just like the Commission’s initial proposal has to be evidence-based, so should fundamental changes introduced at a later stage by Parliament or Member States in the future, as the new Guide to Effective EU Tech Regulation makes clear. 

As the European Parliament begins its first tech-related hearings today, CCIA Europe urges policymakers to seize this pivotal moment to reset Europe’s approach to tech regulation. 

The following can be attributed to Senior Vice President and Head of CCIA Europe, Daniel Friedlaender:

“We are at a critical juncture for the EU’s digital economy. Excessive regulation is stifling innovation and undermines Europe’s position in a competitive global market. Since 2019, over 70 EU laws pertaining to the digital sector have been adopted, forcing companies – regardless of their size – to spend more on compliance than on innovation.” 

“In light of the hearings, our message to MEPs and future Commissioners could not be clearer: What Europe needs are smarter, more targeted policies that allow tech firms to innovate without being weighed down by unnecessary regulatory burden.”