On November 23rd 2015, Dr. rer. pol. Annegret Bendiek (l.) of the “Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik” (SWP) visited the University of Osnabrück at the invitation of Prof. Dr. Andrea Lenschow (r.). She reported on the topic “Smart Europe? Challenges of Digitalization” with special emphasis on “Europe’s digital integration”.
In her central statement, Dr. Bendiek emphasized that the EU internal market forms the core of integration for the European digital space as well, with the European Court of Justice and national industries working as driving forces. She also pointed out that the term “Cyber” should be seen in a broader context rather than only with regards to security policies.
Referring to theories of Fritz Scharpf, the speaker explained that the digital internal market is based on three columns: negative integration (market creating actions), positive integration (regulation) and distributive policies (e.g. promotion of startup enterprises in the IT sector). However, Scharpf’s concept should be expanded by an international dimension since this has a direct influence on the European integration. The challenges of the digital integration were presented by referring to five questions on the path of an e-mail: By means of which hard- and software is an e-mail written? Across which channels is it sent? In which clouds is it being stored? How are its contents coded? And how is it protected in legal terms? In this way, current developments and judgments of the European Court of Justice were examined.
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