Implementing the European Union’s Digital Single Market Strategy

The European Union’s current efforts to implement a Digital Single Market Strategy (DSMS) focus in large part on issues related to e-commerce, copyright protection, and the ability of individual EU countries to block online transactions and digital content when they cross national borders. In order to create greater internal seamlessness and promote greater influence in the global digital marketplace, the DSMS aims to provide Europeans with easier online access—under conditions of fair competition—regardless of nationality or country of residence. It is an ambitious plan to unite Europe’s current patchwork of national online markets—some say too ambitious. Is a DSMS rollout across the EU’s 28 member states realistic from a political, legal, and/or social perspective? What alternatives are possible if the current path does not create the intended results?

On May 24, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a live online discussion with Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Stuart N. Brotman to discuss the DSMS, including perspectives on his newly-released paper, “The European Union’s Digital Single Market Strategy: A Conflict between Government’s Desire for Certainty and Rapid Marketplace Innovation?” 

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