Outgoing energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger limbered up for his new task of creating the single European digital market, fielding questions on subjects ranging from big data to data protection, the cloud, free software, cyber security and net neutrality, in a three-hour session with MEPs on Monday.
Germany’s Commissioner put the focus on investments in ICT infrastructure, saying, “We need to be sure that every citizen, every company, every hairdresser, every craftsman, can use the Internet, can use the digital channels to organise their work.”
European companies need to be able to play in the Champion’s League of tech companies, Oettinger, told MEPs from Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) and the Culture and Education Committee. “EU players are not big enough. We have to be able to hold our own,” he said. “We need to avoid waiting times for 5G [networks], like we saw for 4G.”
On the sensitive matter of data privacy, Oettinger said, “Effective data protection is only possible at an EU level.” In addition to the new data protection regulation, one of the main priorities during his term of office will be new regulation on copyright.
Knowledge gaps
There is some distance between the energy and the digital portfolios and there was scepticism outside the chamber over Oettinger’s grasp on the new brief. He answered well on the big picture, but swerved multiple questions about surveillance, net neutrality and free software. When faced with a question to which he had no answer, the stock reply was, "I’m prepared to spell that out in the future”.
The occasion did not amount to a grilling, and for the most part, MEPs did not to push Oettinger’s knowledge too far.
In the most hard-hitting question of the night, fellow German MEP Martin Sonneborn asked Oettinger about the “right to be forgotten”, asking if the Commissioner-designate would like some of his own past erased from the web, such as a drink driving offence of 25 years ago.
Oettinger responded by saying the right to be forgotten is a basic human right, but if something is in the public interest it should not be deleted from search results. People - himself included - will just have to deal with it. For this answer, Oettinger received hearty applause from MEPs.
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