Digital Affairs – Chancellery
of the Prime Minister

The above issues were discussed in Warsaw on 30^th September 2019 during the conference organised by the Ministry of Digital Affairs together with Directorate general for Communication Networks, Content and Technology of the European Commission.

The conference followed other DSM Cloud Stakeholder meetings held in Brussels, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Madrid, Berlin and Amsterdam. The next meeting will take place during the Data Economy Conference hosted by the Finnish presidency of the EU in Helsinki on 25.-26. November 2019.  

According to data reported by EC just 7% of SMEs in the EU Member states runs export activities. To encourage international trade growth the European Parliament and of the Council adopted the Regulation on a framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union. The regulation applicable as of 28 May 2019, aims at removing obstacles to the free movement of non-personal data across Member States and IT systems in Europe.

Crouching tiger

Companies and organisations operating in Poland and CEE region have a unique opportunity to influence the final shape of the European standards which are to be presented in November 2019 in Helsinki and effectively implemented by 29^th May 2020.  

“From the very beginning the Polish government has been taking active steps to remove barriers to development of e-commerce in Europe. Polish experts actively participated in developing the principles aimed to guarantee that the EU becomes a global leader in the digital economy”, said Karol Okoński, secretary of state in the Ministry of Digital Affairs and the government plenipotentiary for cybersecurity, opening the conference. “We encourage you to boldly use cloud solutions and enjoy the benefits of free data flow”, he added and read a message from the Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.

“Ensuring an undivided digital union is only possible when implementing the principle of free flow of non-personal data”, Prime Minister wrote. “We all agree that the free transfer of non-personal data, as well as the way of organising access to data in the European Union is a key element in increasing the competitiveness of enterprises”.

European Union Digital Agenda – state of play

Addressing room packed with international cloud services and security experts as well as representatives of private and public sector Pearse O'Donohue, Director of the Future Networks Team in Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, European Commission said: “Cloud is an essential technology to maximize productivity and harness the huge value of data. Despite its potential, cloud adoption remains too low and too slow in Europe,” he stated. “We have to continue to reinforce our efforts to mainstream this technology.”

He added: “Lack of trust remains an essential barrier to the uptake of cloud technologies. When choosing a cloud provider across Europe, users should be able to know how secure their data will be. They should also be confident that they can easily transfer their data to another cloud service.”

 “The geopolitical context reminds the urgency of boosting the competitive and secure cloud offering in Europe. As with 5G, we have to ensure that cloud deployment in Europe is adequately protected”, concluded Mr O'Donohue.

Business Continuity in public administration 

Minister Karol Okoński briefly outlined issues which need to be addressed to deliver value and live up to the expectations of the citizens. He explained what the digital government is all about.

“It needs to provide simple, automated, intuitive services,” said Mr Okoński. “AI and big data will help,” he added. Some other criteria pointed as a must include: telco infrastructure; improvement of digital skills and safe and efficient digital identity. “It will all fail if necessary cybersecurity and performance and reliability is not provided”, emphasised Minister Okoński. “No wonder that during the conference today we will opt for and advocate for cloud processing,” he said.

Issues related to practical aspects of  the challenges faced by public administration in implementing services based on cloud services and cybersecurity standards were then presented by an impressive line-up of experts in panel discussions and case study presentations.

Rounding up the event Pierre Chastanet, Head of Unit, Cloud & Software, European Commission emphasised: ““Trust remains the key barrier for development and adoption of cloud technology.” He added: “At the end of the process, knowing the level of security of cloud services should be as easy as knowing the energy efficiency level of a washing machine. As it is easy today to transfer money from one bank to another, it should be equally easy to transfer data from cloud to cloud,” concluded Mr Chastanet.

For more information please email: dsm@mc.gov.pl