Jerzy Buzek, author.– Madam President, big data certainly has enormous potential to push Europe’s economy forward. Europe needs to be ambitious, to lead, on big data but Europe should also lead in protecting our values.

First of all, privacy and data protection. In order to lead on big data Europe needs to set an innovation friendly regulatory framework that ensures, first of all, both data security and privacy. Secondly, to encourage private investment in both infrastructure and research and development. Point number 3: creation of a true digital union with all the standards: intellectual property rights and open public data. Point number 4: foster start-ups and SMEs in the data driven economy. And point number 5: involve society so that it can benefit from big data and be empowered by it.

We call on the Commission and the Council to make all the necessary efforts so Europe could become a global leader on big data.

I would like to thank our colleague, Barbara Kappel, for her crucial involvement in the preparation at committee level for this oral question and the motion for a resolution. And let me say, I did not mention a very important point, of course, which is consumer protection and consumer rights, but this is the responsibility of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and certainly Madam Chair, Vicky Ford, will speak about that.