Guiding principles for European data economy published

Finland, holder of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), on Tuesday published a set of principles for a European data economy.

The document was finalized at a high-level EU conference on data economy that concluded here on Tuesday.

The principles aim at guiding data economy in a "human-centric, thriving and balanced direction." They were defined as: access, share, act, trust, innovate and learn.

Alongside the EU member countries' governments, European businesses, research institutes and interest groups also participated in the drafting of the principles. The project was open to all interested parties.

In his address to the conference attendees, Roberto Viola, director general of the European Commission's Directorate General of Communication, Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), welcomed the work done by Finland and said the question remains open whether the principles should be embedded in law.

Viola noted that Ursula von der Leyen, president-elect of the European Commission, had also said that Europe must set the reference for "human-centric" artificial intelligence (AI) as it has done for data processing.

Viola said that companies should also be feeding data back to the authorities. By way of example, he said that private health care providers should transfer data to the health ministries. As for sharing data between businesses, he said "It has to be fair."

Sanna Marin, Finnish minister of transport and communications, said that "European values" provide a solid foundation for a data economy that respects citizens' rights.

Besides the set of principles prepared under Finnish guidance, Viola also received a proposal from industry for codes of conduct on data portability. Such codes are meant to facilitate the transfer of information between different service providers.