Volledig verslag van de vergaderingen

Woensdag 15 februari 2017 - Straatsburg

16. Europees cloudinitiatief (debat)

  President. – The next item is the report by Jerzy Buzek, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the European Cloud Initiative (2016/2145(INI)) (A8-0006/2017).

In order for there not to be any delay, as I understand that Mr Buzek is not yet with us and in order not to keep us waiting, I propose Commissioner, if you agree, that we will start with your introduction and hopefully in the meantime Mr Buzek will arrive.

  Carlos Moedas, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, last year on 19 April the Commission launched the European Cloud Initiative with the ambition of ensuring that science, businesses, public services could reap all the benefits of the so-called ‘big data revolution’. Today we produce 2.5 billion – billion – bytes of data per day. That is, as someone once put it, four Eiffel Towers of Blu-ray discs per day, so the fundamental question for us tonight is really how we should deal with it, and the Cloud Initiative is part of the answer to this question.

The Communication proposed the creation of an inclusive, European, open science cloud, deploying an efficient European data infrastructure to address such enormous data flows and opening up the user base to the public sector and industry. As Commissioner for research, science and innovation, I have followed very closely the work of this House and it culminated with the adoption of the report in front of us today.

Let me say a word of gratitude to the Chair, Jerzy Buzek, for stepping up as a rapporteur, and to Mr Boni and Ms Maydell for their work in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). I knew from the beginning that the contribution of this Parliament would be a valuable support for our strategy for an open and trusted cloud-based data environment geared to the scientific community.

We are now deeply committed to engaging with all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the European Cloud Initiative can achieve its objectives. We are now discussing sustainable funding and implementation instruments with the Member States, research infrastructures, scientific communities and other key players. But let me assure you that we are here to tell you that your advice will be followed, that the Commission has already started to implement the initiative very much along the lines that you suggest.

First, on the European Open Science Cloud the Commission is preparing a roadmap for governance and financing to be presented to, and discussed with, the Member States in the course of 2017. Our aim is very simple. We want our 1.7 million European scientists to have the best services for text and data mining, the best data management plans and the best training programmes. We made open data the default in Horizon 2020, starting in 2017. In other words, we kind of transformed an exception into a rule simply because we intend and we believe that the Commission should lead by example.

We will fund a pilot project on the European Science Cloud to ensure that the governance in the European Open Science Cloud is truly representative of European science, that it create synergies amongst existing and future initiatives of this kind.

Over the year, we will do more. We will define a governance board before the end of 2017 and we will work on making all our research data fair; findable, so scientists can identify each piece of data in a unique way; accessible, so it can always be obtained freely; interoperable, because science is today at the intersection of disciplines; and reusable, because you cannot lose important data after you have used it, you have to be able to use it in different disciplines at different times. So if we want better research, if we want better science and if we want better innovation, it is essential to be able to set these fair principles of data as the global standard, so we all speak to same language and we can advance in science.

After addressing you on the Science Cloud, let me now give you some information about the European data infrastructure, a European high performance computing strategy under development with Member States and European industry. This includes a pooling of the necessary investments at all levels to create a world-class pan-European high performance computing and big data ecosystem by 2023.

We want this ecosystem to be built on two exascale computers. That means a billion operations per second, which is basically one thousand times faster than today’s supercomputers. The Commission agrees that the take-up of high performance computing services by businesses, consumers, public administrations and scientific sectors requires seamless user-friendly access with appropriate levels of data protection, security and services to ensure trust and confidence in their use. I believe the key for the future in terms of data is about exactly these two principles: trust and confidence.

And so in this context, on 10 January last, the Commission adopted the Communication on Building a European Data Economy. That deals with additional big data issues. It advocates reducing barriers to the free flow of data. It looks into questions of ownership, access to data, liability in the context of data-driven processes and autonomous systems. It puts emphasis on measures necessary to ensure an open and competitive economy without unjustified lock-in effects. As regards widening the benefits of the European Cloud Initiative to industry, the Commission is considering several proposals on the supply and demand side and on the extension to SMEs.

Let me finish by reiterating that the Commission is fully committed with you to supporting science, industry and public authorities in Europe, access to world-class data infrastructures and cloud-based services as they become the decisive factors for success in this digital era. In a recent visit to Heidelberg I saw how the Institute of Bioinformatics generates more than EUR 1.3 billion per year of value just by having made one very simple choice: scientific information freely available to the global science community. That is the way we are going. That is the way we will have to go, thanks to your report.

  Michał Boni, rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, deputising for the rapporteur. – Mr President, Commissioner, first of all I would like to thank my colleagues, shadow rapporteurs from the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, because I was a shadow there and rapporteur for the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, for the great cooperation which has resulted in us getting this report into a positive shape.

We need open science followed by open innovation in Europe. We have to overcome all institutional and mental barriers to create a good background for the European Open Science Cloud initiative. It is key to use the Horizon 2020 sources more strongly and faster, to speed up modern science developments, especially to start with the European supercomputer, to attract scientists to be more open, to ensure interoperability and technological support for the secure cloud, to involve all partners in the data computing processes. We need to share data and the results of research under conditions of security, privacy protection and modernised intellectual property. Open access to data, based on clear rules, better usage of text and data mining possibilities are the new drivers. Open data-driven science and the Big Data-driven economy are two sides of the same coin. Opening the data is the future. Locking up is the past.

  Eva Maydell, rapporteur for the opinion of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. – Mr President, this initiative enables Europe to open a new page in the history of our continent so that we can prove we are a continent of innovation, of places where it can happen, a continent open for business.

In the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection we want to put forward three key points, and I would like to thank our colleagues in the Committee on Industry Research and Energy for taking them on board. First of all, the initiative should deal with what the sector is willing to do and wants to do. Second of all, it has to have a regional approach: newer Member States also have to have a key role in the discussions in bringing forward this initiative. Third, we need European legislation to guarantee the free flow of data. We want the free flow of data to be the fifth freedom in Europe. I really hope that the European Cloud for Open Science could become one of those key successful projects in Europe, just like projects such as Erasmus, the abolition of roaming or the European Fund for Strategic Investment.

I would like to thank everyone who pulled together on this text and ensured that we managed to fight the populist approach and that it did not block our way in pushing the initiative forward.

  Pilar del Castillo Vera, en nombre del Grupo PPE. – Señor presidente, comisario, yo quisiera empezar por agradecer el esfuerzo que han hecho los ponentes alternativos y, muy especialmente, mi colega Michał Boni, porque las circunstancias en las que la posición de la Comisión ITRE se ha configurado han sido especialmente complejas y difíciles, y hemos tenido, al final, una magnífica posición, un magnífico documento en la Comisión ITRE.

La economía de datos se está configurando como el principal motor del crecimiento y de la competitividad en todo el mundo, también en Europa.

Hasta ahora, prácticamente, la generación de datos tenía un perfil y era una fuente de naturaleza esencialmente personal, vinculada a redes sociales, vinculada también al comercio electrónico. Pero ahora estamos ante una situación emergente, y cada vez más cristalizada, donde los datos que proceden de la conexión máquina a máquina se están convirtiendo y van acabar convirtiéndose en el corazón de la economía del conocimiento, de la economía de los datos.

Dadas las fortalezas que tiene la industria de manufactura europea —su capacidad de exportación, etcétera—, estamos ante una enorme posibilidad nueva y, en ese sentido, esta propuesta de computación en nube para la ciencia abierta, pero también para aplicarla posteriormente a la industria y a otros sectores, me parece esencial.

  Dan Nica, în numele grupului S&D. – Domnule președinte, domnule comisar, salut inițiativa Comisiei în domeniul cloud computingului, ca element al punerii în aplicare a strategiei pentru piața unică digitală și a pachetului privind digitalizarea industriei europene, susținând astfel creșterea economiei digitale europene, contribuind la competitivitatea întreprinderilor și serviciilor europene și consolidând poziția pe piața mondială. Deoarece beneficiile cloud computingului sunt esențiale pentru creșterea durabilă, crearea de locuri de muncă și pentru cercetători, este important să se reducă fragmentarea infrastructurilor digitale, să se asigure guvernanța și finanțarea corespunzătoare pentru cloudul european.

Dezvoltarea tehnologiei 5G și noile reguli ce vor fi instituite de Codul european de comunicații electronice ar trebui să facă cloudul european pentru știință deschisă mai atractiv, asigurând servicii de internet de înaltă calitate și o infrastructură nouă de calitate superioară. De asemenea, elaborarea unor standarde clare pentru interoperabilitate, portabilitatea datelor și acordurile pentru nivelul serviciilor în domeniul tehnologiei cloud va asigura un grad sporit de certitudine și transparență, atât în beneficiul utilizatorilor, cât și al furnizorilor de servicii cloud.

Stimate domnule comisar, raportul adoptat în cadrul Comisiei ITRE și pe care îl discutăm astăzi cred că se bucură de o mare susținere în Parlament și, de asemenea, și din partea Comisiei. Pentru a asigura succesul acestei inițiative, aș dori să vă întreb ce măsuri are în vedere Comisia pentru a stimula participarea IMM-urilor europene și a sectorului privat în producerea de echipamente, programe informatice și pentru infrastructura europeană de date și, de asemenea, cum putem asigura resursele financiare necesare acestei inițiative.

  Zdzisław Krasnodębski, w imieniu grupy ECR. – Panie Przewodniczący! EKR w pełni popiera ideę udostępniania wszystkich danych naukowych opracowanych w ramach programu „Horyzont 2020” za pośrednictwem europejskiej chmury dla otwartej nauki. Ale mamy wątpliwości co do roli i wartości udziału Komisji Europejskiej w kształtowaniu przyszłości tego sektora w związku z rozwojem infrastruktury i wykorzystywaniem zasobów. Uważamy, że kwestią nadrzędną jest, by takie prace były prowadzone przez sektor branżowy i uwzględniały realia rynkowe. Komisja Europejska nie powinna zanadto ingerować w działanie rynku w tym zakresie.

Prezentowane przez Komisję scentralizowane podejście uniwersalne dla wszystkich („one size fits all”) nie jest właściwym rozwiązaniem. Poza tym zgodnie z komunikatem europejską inicjatywę dotyczącą przetwarzania w chmurze powinno zasilić finansowanie w ramach programu „Horyzont 2020”, ale jednocześnie stwierdza się, że w okresie pięciu lat konieczne będą dodatkowe inwestycje publiczno-prywatne w wysokości 4,7 mld euro. Komisja nie podaje, na jakiej podstawie ustaliła, że będą konieczne inwestycje tej wielkości.

  Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, namens de ALDE-Fractie. – Ik wil graag eerst de schaduwrapporteurs en in het bijzonder collega Boni bedanken voor de goede samenwerking bij dit verslag. Ik pleit voor een sterk signaal van het Europees Parlement inzake dit European Cloud Initiative. Ik wil graag dat we kunnen zeggen: we zijn “proud of the Cloud”. Want voor onze internationale concurrentiekracht is het cruciaal dat Europa zo snel mogelijk beschikt over een ultramoderne digitale infrastructuur. Eigenlijk is dat een no-brainer als je bedenkt dat alle sectoren van de economie digitaliseren. Door het internet of things groeien datastromen explosief. Als we bedenken dat 80 procent van de data die nu opgeslagen is in de afgelopen twee jaar is verzameld, dan kun je zien hoe snel dat zal gaan.

Dit initiatief slaat de brug tussen data en digitalisering, vooral ook door de Open Science Cloud. Door deze kans te grijpen kunnen we extra groei en banen creëren. De Open Science Cloud zal miljoenen wetenschappers in Europa, onafhankelijk van landsgrenzen of specifieke onderzoeksgebieden, toegang geven tot heel veel nieuwe data waar ze nu niet gemakkelijk bij kunnen. Maar natuurlijk moeten ook andere gebruikers kunnen profiteren van de Open Science Cloud. Bedrijven moeten goedkoop en gemakkelijk toegang tot big data krijgen, waardoor zij nieuwe innovatieve producten kunnen ontwikkelen. Door de cloud te gebruiken kunnen zij hun IT-kosten gemiddeld met 20 tot 50 procent omlaag brengen.

Dus, onze digitale infrastructuur moet van de hoogste kwaliteit zijn en ik ben blij dat de Commissie inzet op drie cruciale terreinen: de supercomputers, hogesnelheidsverbindingen en de massaopslag van data. In het bijzonder ben ik blij met de miljard euro die de Commissie vrijmaakt voor quantumonderzoek, want deze nieuwe generatie supercomputers zal alle huidige computers de baas kunnen. We moeten ervoor zorgen dat Europa de koploper blijft en ik ben blij dat de Raad dit ook serieus oppakt. Morgen mag ik bijvoorbeeld ook aanwezig zijn op een conferentie op Malta over de quantumcomputer.

  Marisa Matias, em nome do Grupo GUE/NGL. – Não havendo na União Europeia servidores com capacidade suficiente para armazenar os dados da investigação, isso faz com que os investigadores tenham que recorrer a outros lugares e que armazenem fora da União Europeia, sem a proteção de dados ser salvaguardada. O mesmo se aplica em relação ao acesso: há problemas de acesso por não termos esta capacidade no quadro da União Europeia.

Este projeto que se apresenta hoje é um projeto ambicioso, mas para que funcione na sua plenitude é necessário, em primeiro lugar, que o sistema seja mantido no domínio público, garantindo o uso e o acesso a toda a comunidade, desde investigadores a pequenas e médias empresas e outros setores da indústria; em segundo lugar, garantir a portabilidade e a interoperabilidade dos dados; em terceiro lugar, proteger os dados pessoais e da investigação ao abrigo da legislação que já temos e não ceder nem um milímetro.

A iniciativa europeia para a nuvem é um projeto fundamental para a sociedade digital, mas não podemos deixar que os interesses privados se sobreponham e, por isso, podemos mesmo acabar com as parcerias público-privadas. Creio que seria um erro, em termos de acesso e daquilo que deve ser o fundo deste projeto, que creio ser de extrema importância.

E, por último, por último, especialmente para o Sr. Comissário e para o seu assessor, Alfredo Sousa Jesus, imaginem a sociedade em que viveríamos hoje se Marx tivesse tido a oportunidade de partilhar toda a sua obra na nuvem.

  Judith Sargentini, namens de Verts/ALE-Fractie. –Een paar jaar geleden konden we nog zeggen dat Cloud computing iets was voor de toekomst. Nu is het eigenlijk de gewoonste zaak van de wereld om je gegevens buiten je eigen harde schijf op te slaan. Maar dat opslaan doen we wel heel erg vaak buiten de Europese Unie en dat is niet goed, want buiten onze jurisdictie kunnen we overheden, bedrijven, wetenschappers en burgers niet beschermen. Amerikaanse bedrijven moeten de NSA laten meekijken en laten we het over Russische bedrijven maar niet hebben. En dat is ook niet goed, want persoonsgegevens beschermen is enorm belangrijk, zeker in tijden van Trump en Poetin.

Dus dit Cloud Initiative - en ik zeg het niet vaak - is een echte win-winkans. We kunnen onze achterstand in cloud computing ombouwen naar een voorsprong. Dat is goed voor onze portemonnee en het is goed voor onze privacy. Maar dan wil ik u vragen, meneer de commissaris, om op te houden met luisteren naar bedrijven als Hewlett-Packard en Amazon, Amerikaanse bedrijven die graag de monopoliepositie willen hebben op de cloud. Door open standaarden af te dwingen verkleinen we dat risico. Door onze wetten op gegevensbescherming, ook in de cloud, heel strak te handhaven, hebben wij een aanbod ook voor bedrijven van buiten de Europese Unie. Dan zie ik hele goede kansen.

  Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, au nom du groupe ENF. – Monsieur le Président, chers collègues, comme vous le savez, ce rapport était à l’origine mon rapport.

Mon souci avait été de: maîtriser la filière, à la fois le software et le hardware au niveau d’entreprises européennes, c’est-à-dire d’entreprises véritablement européennes ayant leur siège en Europe, fabriquant en Europe et ayant des capitaux européens; maîtriser la sécurité avec des clés de sécurité qui le permettent et, entre autres, les clés quantiques; maîtriser la notion d’ouverture, parce qu’il faut que l’ouverture ne soit pas simplement à sens unique et qu’elle ne serve pas que les puissances étrangères, alors que les États—Unis ou la Chine se protègent avec la notion d’ouverture; maîtriser la propriété de la donnée suivant le principe qu’elle appartient véritablement à celui qui la fournit.

J’ai été étonné. Je me suis entouré d’une équipe de 25 spécialistes et de 5 coordinateurs, spécialistes également dans ce secteur. Nous avons découvert, Monsieur le Commissaire, que certaines entreprises – les premières en Europe – n’avaient pas été consultées. Nous avons découvert que vous mettez d’énormes moyens dans les supercalculateurs, mais que vous abandonnez par ailleurs le quantique, par exemple, ou d’autres secteurs comme les microprocesseurs, qui représentent 20 fois le marché des superordinateurs. Nous avons découvert que votre politique est surtout celle des lobbyistes étrangers.

Ces faits – j’ai donné tous les travaux à la Commission –, mes collègues les refusent. La réalité est renvoyée à plus tard. Je crains malheureusement, Monsieur le Commissaire, que cette politique soit un échec et je tiens donc à vous dire que si je n’avais pas déjà eu des raisons de sortir de cette Europe, maintenant, j’en aurais une de plus.

  Diane James (NI). – Mr President, I do not wish to be a spoilsport, but may I just introduce a dose of reality to this particular debate? This project is forecast to cost EUR 6.7 billion, which includes a 4.7 billion financial shortfall. That means that no one has defined where almost EUR 5 billion of the costs will be found. Secondly, there is no explanation from the Commission as to how or why this concept will work any better than existing readily available storage systems. Thirdly, there is no road map to show how national governments might be persuaded of any of the benefits, given existing global and fully international alternatives. Fourthly, there is no impact assessment on national legal competences such as posting of data and spectrum issues.

Now everything points to the sort of debacle that even the United Kingdom has had with big IT projects, and I have to admit that; with the huge costs involved with all of the aspects that have not been addressed, I really do feel that giving the green light to this tomorrow is not going to be the right decision, and I ask that the rapporteur takes these points on board and asks the committee to look at it again.

  Paul Rübig (PPE). – Herr Präsident! Ich möchte mich bei Kommissar Moedas recht herzlich bedanken für diese Initiative, die Europa stärken wird. Kollege Boni hat es gut auf den Punkt gebracht, dass es um den Schutz der personenbezogenen Daten in einer zertifizierten europäischen Cloud geht. Wir wissen, die Cloud Select Industry Group hat sich um einen Code of Conduct bemüht, der für Europa Standards setzen wird. Diese Standards brauchen wir global, damit die europäische Cloud-Industrie in diesem Bereich eine starke Rolle bekommt. ENISA und ETSI sind hier key player, und ich kann den beiden Organisationen nur gratulieren, dass diese Initiative wirklich nachhaltige europäische Erfolge auch für die kleinen und mittleren Betriebe bringen wird.

Wir brauchen natürlich auch ein Cloud-Computing-Compliance-Control-Katalogsystem, um hier Standards zu setzen, die es uns ermöglichen, das Misstrauen und die Vertrauenskrise, die es in diesem Bereich gibt, zu beseitigen. Wir brauchen ein europäisches Cloud-Gütesiegel, das die Datenhaltung bei den europäischen Cloud-Anbietern auch in europäischen Rechenzentren sicherstellt und der vollständige source code in Europa dementsprechend verfügbar ist. Wir brauchen das europäische Recht und die europäischen Datenschutzbestimmungen, um dieses Cloud-Gütesiegel umsetzen zu können. Dann bleiben auch die Steuern und Abgaben in Europa, und IT-Dienste werden zu unserer Infrastruktur beitragen können.

  Josef Weidenholzer (S&D). – Herr Präsident! Europäische Clouds tragen zur Sicherung des Wirtschaftsstandorts Europa bei und stellen gerade dann, wenn ein hohes Datenschutzniveau gewährleistet ist, auch einen Wettbewerbsvorteil dar.

Das habe ich vor vier Jahren hier in diesem Haus bei einer Debatte gesagt. Seither ist viel passiert. Das Datenvolumen hat sich vervielfacht, die technischen Möglichkeiten haben sich entscheidend verbessert. Auf unserem Gebiet ist aber wenig geschehen. Deshalb ist die Initiative der Kommission zu begrüßen. Es sollte aber nicht bei Ankündigungen und Schönrednerei bleiben.

Damit dies nicht passiert, brauchen wir mehr Mittel – deutlich mehr Mittel und rasch –, und wir sollten auch die europäischen Wettbewerbsvorteile deutlich machen. Dazu gehört das hohe Datenschutzniveau auf diesem Kontinent. Wir sollten uns bewusst sein, dass eine Europäische Cloud-Initiative nicht nur auf die Forschung ausgerichtet sein sollte, sondern auch auf die Bedürfnisse der privaten User Bezug nehmen sollte.

  José Blanco López (S&D). – Señor presidente, Europa tiene un magnífico ecosistema de investigación e innovación, 1,7 millones de investigadores, 70 millones de profesionales en ciencia y tecnología. Pero siempre hay un «pero». Somos buenos inventando nuevas tecnologías digitales pero fallamos en la explotación comercial de estas ideas. Somos buenos desarrolladores de aplicaciones pero para plataformas de terceros. Europa es la mayor productora de datos científicos del mundo, pero, una vez más, la fragmentación y las insuficiencias de nuestras infraestructuras nos impiden aprovechar todo el potencial de esos datos.

La Iniciativa Europea de Computación en la Nube es imprescindible y urgente. Necesitamos un entorno virtual para almacenar, compartir y reutilizar los datos generados por ese universo de investigadores y tecnólogos a través de disciplinas y de fronteras. Necesitamos ganar capacidad de supercomputación y eso requiere recursos económicos para hacer posible desplegar la capacidad de la supercomputación, conectividad ultrarrápida y soluciones en nube de alta capacidad a través de una infraestructura de datos europeos. Y para hacer posible que todas las regiones de la Unión Europea participen, que no haya nuevas brechas.

Yo, desde luego, apoyo y animo a la Comisión y a los Estados miembros a hacer realidad estos objetivos, poniendo los recursos económicos necesarios para financiar iniciativas en que nos jugamos el ser o no ser de la competitividad mundial de Europa.

  Carlos Zorrinho (S&D). – Sr. Comissário, vivemos um tempo de aceleração no acesso e processamento de dados. A sociedade digital que está a emergir no mundo atual é desenhada sobre um magma constituído por quantidades cada vez maiores de dados. A União Europeia precisa de uma infraestrutura robusta para o seu armazenamento, conectividade de alta velocidade e capacidade de transporte e computadores com elevada capacidade de processamento e, a partir daqui, temos que definir prioridades, temos que apostar na inovação dos serviços para os cidadãos, na integração das pequenas e médias empresa nas cadeias de valor e, com isso, temos que conseguir melhorar as respostas em áreas como a segurança, a proteção da privacidade, a saúde e a qualificação das pessoas.

A iniciativa Wifi for EU, que contribui para um acesso universal e de elevada qualidade à Internet, independentemente da condição económica e do local geográfico, pode ser utilizada para testar a promoção da inclusão associada a esta iniciativa. Deixo—lhe, Sr. Comissário, este desafio.

E também temos que melhorar a conectividade a outras zonas do globo. O cabo submarino entre a Europa e o Brasil é também importante para o sucesso desta iniciativa.

  Victor Negrescu (S&D). – Domnule președinte, salut acest raport privind Inițiativa europeană în domeniul cloud computingului și îmi exprim încrederea că poziția Parlamentului va fi luată în considerare de către Comisie.

Industria de cloud se dezvoltă foarte repede și se estimează că va ajunge la aproape 45 de miliarde de euro în 2020. De fapt, este suficient să ne uităm la faptul că 25 % din firmele europene folosesc deja cloudul pentru stocarea mailurilor sau documentelor, iar o treime dintre acestea utilizează inclusiv aplicații financiare sau de gestiune în cloud. Cu toate acestea, aproape jumătate din companii consideră cloudul încă un risc important de securitate și justifică nefolosirea tehnologiei prin absența competențelor.

De fapt, dacă Uniunea Europeană vrea să investească cu adevărat în această tehnologie, trebuie să acorde sumele de bani necesare. Ne lipsesc 4,7 miliarde de euro pentru finanțarea inițiativei. Avem doar 12% din Fondul european de investiții strategice îndreptate către digital și vrem să avem soluții.

Trebuie să acționăm direct, rapid în educație, în sectorul public, în educarea companiilor, pentru a avea un cloud european. Domnule comisar, aveți sprijinul Parlamentului European pentru asta, fiți puternic.

  Soledad Cabezón Ruiz (S&D). – Señor presidente, señor comisario, como muy bien sabe, la economía de los datos es el paso irrenunciable o irremediable en la economía digital.

Celebro el llamamiento que se hace en el informe a la ciencia abierta, por los avances que va a suponer en el conocimiento y en la propia economía. Necesitamos para ello una infraestructura, como es el iCloud, que debe ser ambiciosa y, por supuesto, con financiación suficiente.

Considero que la coordinación por parte de la Comisión es clave para que sea un éxito.

También considero que la participación pública y privada es imprescindible para poder aprovechar todos los avances y las oportunidades que se nos ofrecen. Para ello, creo que esa participación debe serlo en el sentido del acceso a la información, y también en el soporte de esta infraestructura.

Catch-the-eye procedure

  Lambert van Nistelrooij (PPE). – Mr President, I wanted to say to the Commissioner that this is a really timely proposal. In the past, when we talked about the cloud development, we missed the bus and came too late. Here we have an excellent Horizon 2020 programme, we have excellent universities and we have all those campuses all over Europe specialised to combine them and to enable them. So I would like to congratulate you.

The second thing concerns the human resources that we need to make this happen, to make this fly. In my region, in relation to the big data initiative you have just mentioned, there is now a new academy, which started last year in combination with big data, science, ethics and entrepreneurship. So you can see that, from different angles, this might be a very powerful and timely initiative, not repeating the last years where we lost out to the United States, as I heard a minute ago.

  Νότης Μαριάς (ECR). – Κύριε Πρόεδρε, το υπολογιστικό νέφος έχει σχέση με την αποθήκευση, επεξεργασία και χρήση δεδομένων από απομακρυσμένους υπολογιστές στους οποίους εξασφαλίζεται πρόσβαση μέσω του Διαδικτύου και βοηθά τους χρήστες να εξοικονομήσουν χρόνο και χρήμα. Το υπολογιστικό νέφος δίνει στους χρήστες τη δυνατότητα να έχουν σχεδόν απόλυτη ευελιξία, όσον αφορά τον χώρο αποθήκευσης και τα εργαλεία που χρησιμοποιούν. Υπολογίζεται ότι τα έσοδα από το υπολογιστικό νέφος στην Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση θα μπορούσαν να φτάσουν τα 80 δισεκατομμύρια EUR μέχρι το 2020. Ωστόσο, υπενθυμίζεται ότι η προστασία προσωπικών και ευαίσθητων δεδομένων οφείλει να έχει προτεραιότητα έναντι της ελεύθερης κυκλοφορίας των δεδομένων. Τέλος, οποιαδήποτε πολιτική πρωτοβουλία για το υπολογιστικό νέφος στην Ευρώπη πρέπει να ανταποκρίνεται στις ανάγκες και να ωφελεί τις μικρές και μεσαίες επιχειρήσεις και κυρίως τους καταναλωτές σε ευρωπαϊκό, εθνικό, περιφερειακό και τοπικό επίπεδο.

(End of catch-the-eye procedure)

  Carlos Moedas, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, I would like to thank the honourable Members very much for this interesting debate and all the questions which we received and which we have discussed.

I will start by quoting Mr Boni, who said that open data is the future and locking up is the past. We have the opportunity not to miss this boat of open access, open data, open science and openness to the world. So I really warmly appreciate your calls during this debate to speed up implementation, to invest in a world—leading capacity, to set up a governance structure with a membership that is truly representative of European science, to protect people’s data and privacy, and to ensure that European industry and the public sector benefit fully from it.

The Commission knows that it can count on the European Parliament as a true partner to realise these objectives in full. Thank you very much for this discussion and for your comments. I am a great believer that this is the way to go. This is the way to go so that we can have better science. Our scientists, whom I meet every day, tell us that they want to have this cloud. They need this cloud. This cloud is about being better, being able to mine text and data better than others, and having access to information that can create ideas. Those ideas can create companies and those companies will create the jobs of the future.

  President. – Commissioner, I would like to express my appreciation of your efforts in terms of entering into debate. It is not always the case that Commissioners react to the questions that have been posed, and that is what I would like to encourage so that the European Parliament is an arena of real debate.

  Michał Boni, deputising for the rapporteur. – Mr President, I would like to thank the Commissioner for his explanation and his determination to establish a European Open Science Cloud because this really is our future. I would also like to thank all my colleagues, who have mentioned many issues here. I think that we can conclude by talking about five conditions for open science data, for the development of the Open Science Cloud Initiative.

Firstly, infrastructure – how to make the infrastructure much more adjusted. We need to develop 5G, we need to have this European supercomputer, and we need to develop and have a network of European high performance computing centres. Secondly, principles: we need a much more secure cloud and we need to implement the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and privacy protection. We also need, I think, to discuss how to use anonymisation in processing the data.

Thirdly, cooperation of all partners, because I think it is very important to involve scientists, to involve universities, to involve business and to involve citizens. Fourthly, we need to promote this solution because there are many mental barriers, including in our universities among our scientists. And last, but not least, we need to discuss financial resources for the development of those issues because this is very crucial, so we need to discuss how to use money from Horizon 2020, but we also need to discuss now what will happen after 2020.

  President. – The debate is closed.

The vote will take place on Thursday, 16 February 2017.

Written statements (Rule 162)

  Nicola Caputo (S&D), per iscritto. – Con mia interrogazione del dicembre 2014 "Internet e servizi universali" ho presupposto che nell'Agenda digitale i servizi ICT vengano considerati servizi pubblici fondamentali. In due anni la necessità sempre maggiore di garantire privacy del dato e massima inclusività, velocità nella installazione delle reti, idoneità di piani di backup e rispetto dell'ambiente in internet ha reso sempre più attuale questa definizione.

Sono soddisfatto della risposta che ho ricevuto nel febbraio 2015 dal commissario Oettinger visto che la Commissione ribadisce il proprio impegno nei confronti degli obiettivi dell'Agenda digitale europea e che la banda larga è essenziale perché i nuovi servizi online raggiungano una massa critica.

Tuttavia i recenti sviluppi sociali, economici e tecnologici impongono alle istituzioni UE di riesaminare il contenuto del servizio universale a livello dell'UE per tutelare i servizi accessibili al pubblico. Il cloud è un servizio per me universale e come tale deve essere garantito. Non è un caso, infatti, che la creazione del miglior ambiente possibile con dati di alta qualità, analisi dei dati e servizi sicuri rende sempre più competitive le nostre PMI.

  Algirdas Saudargas (PPE), raštu. – Europos debesijos iniciatyva atsirado kaip bandymas atliepti į skaitmeninio amžiaus iššūkius. Duomenų ekonomika tampa vienu pagrindinių ekonomikos varikliu dabarties pasaulyje. Duomenys, užuot turėję tik lokalų pobūdį, dabar įgyja globalias pasiekiamumo galimybes. Ši debesijų iniciatyva yra pribrendusi ir tikėtina, kad padės efektyviai spręsti duomenų saugojimo, apdorojimo ir mainų klausimus pačioje ES, o tuo pačiu padidins Europos Sąjungos ekonomikos konkurencingumą. Vienas iš dokumente minimų tikslų yra skaitmeninės ekonomikos plėtra. Atviras debesijos projektas pasitarnaus ne tik mokslui, bet ir privačiam sektoriui. Pritariu dokumente išsakytiems teiginiams apie asmens ir mokslo duomenų apsaugą, pasinaudojant jau galiojančiais ES teisės aktais, tačiau turi būti išlaikytas balansas tarp visuomenės ir asmeninių interesų. Debesų kompiuterija nėra tik techninių sprendimų klausimų visuma. Tai pačios Europos informacinio saugumo klausimai. Siekiant išvengti duomenų fragmentacijos, reikia ne tik suvienodinti ES valstybių narių laisvo duomenų judėjimo teisinę bazę, bet peržiūrėti ir modernizuoti autorių teisių klausimus.