Digital Affairs – Chancellery
of the Prime Minister

The open European public consultations, which were running from 2 June to 8 September, concerning the planned package of measures under the Digital Services Act (DSA) have come to an end.

Directions and priorities

The consultations covered a number of issues, such as cybersecurity, freedom of expression, justice and a level playing field in the digital economy.

In response to the initiative of the European Commission, the Ministry of Digital Affairs together with other institutions in Poland (Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finance, Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and Office of Electronic Communications) prepared the position of the Polish Government in this regard.

We focused on three key issues:

• we shared with the European Commission our assessment of the functioning of the E-Commerce Directive and pointed out the necessary directions for its revision;

• we talked about the proposals for new regulations for large online platform companies acting as gatekeepers

• we presented out position on reducing online disinformation.

“In our non-paper we also pointed out, among other things, that it is necessary to break down barriers that hinder the proper functioning of the Digital Single Market. This will be possible thanks to overhauling the existing legal solutions, bridging gaps and consistent application of the principles adopted in the European Union, as well as the inclusion of entities from third countries that operate on the EU market into the framework of the new regulations” says Marek Zagórski, Minister of Digital Affairs.

Time for change

In its position, the Polish Government notes that it is time to review the provisions concerning the removal of illegal content from the Internet and the rules for moderating content by online intermediaries.

In this regard, we have expressed our support for the measures that will:

• ensure greater legal certainty, including for online intermediaries, while preventing fragmentation of the internal market;

• contribute to the protection of fundamental rights of internet users and better safety and security online;

• introduce effective market surveillance with regard to content moderation carried out by intermediaries.

“As we pointed out in our position, the internet is not what it used to be in 2000, when the E-Commerce Directive was originally adopted. The sheer scale of the use of digital services, business models and diversity of services offered have changed dramatically. In addition, the Member States adopted different approaches to the implementation of this Directive, which has a negative impact on the provision of digital services across the EU” Minister Marek Zagórski noted. “This is just one of many arguments that justify the efforts to come up with a new EU law on digital services and create clear, transparent and systemic regulations to strengthen the digital single market in the EU”, the Minister added. 

The European Commission plans to present the legislative initiatives prepared under the DSA package at the end of December this year.

Poland will continue to participate actively in negotiations at EU level.

We encourage you to read the position presented by the Polish Government within the framework of the consultations.