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A Race Against Time: New Data Protection Rules in the Internet Era
It was about time. Pre-internet rules on data protection were not fit for our new interconnected reality. The core institutions of the European Union have finally set in stone an agreement which...
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Cultural Industries: Europe, Look East!
There is a fascinating twist in the current European debate on cultural industries and the Single Digital Market: it has been dominated by the transatlantic dimension. Europeans are still measuring...
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Wrestling with or Embracing Digitization?
Vincent Van Gogh is regarded as one of the greatest artists and his paintings are some of the world’s most expensive. However, while he was alive he only sold one piece, The Red Vineyard near...
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Realpolitik in ISDS Reform: Will the Commission’s Proposal get us Anywhere?
Things for the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism are not looking good lately. The system has been strongly criticised by civil society and representatives of governments all over the...
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Who Did not See the Migration Crisis Coming?
This infographic documents the European migration crisis during 2015. In 2014 the migrant flow had been mainly from Africa through Libya across the Mediterranean into Italy; but in contrast in 2015...
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What We Talk about When we Talk about Trade
Commissioner Cecilia Malmström’s Communication on European trade strategy seems to have won praises from Brussels and the capitals, with at least one head of government (PM Cameron) hailing her...
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ECJ Safe Harbour Ruling Already Paves Way for Data Localisation in Germany
On 6 October 2015, EU-US Safe Harbour framework – the self-certification program for US firms according to the EU’s Data Protection Directive – was declared void by the ECJ. Is this a true...
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After the ECJ Ruling: What Now?
In a nutshell On Tuesday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued the long-awaited ruling on the case of Max Schrems, which investigated whether his right of privacy on his personal Facebook data...
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Europe, Software and Data Flows: What are the Economics?
This figure shows the accumulated capital stock in software and other computerized information per worker for various European countries for which data is available. In contrast to many other...
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The Japan EU Regulatory Cooperation A Key Agenda for a “Living Partnership”
The last Japan-EU Summit achieved a little noticed but crucial progress. It made a clear call for “further progress in regulatory cooperation” between Japan and the EU—a theme non-existent two...