Digital Affairs – Chancellery
of the Prime Minister

During the Tuesday meeting, the participants summarised the work undertaken to date during the Finnish Presidency of the EU Council, talking about the significance of 5G networks for the European economy.

The meeting resulted in adopting a number of conclusions, including that 5G networks will become part of the key infrastructure for maintaining important social and economic functions. The Council members also agreed that 5G security is a continuous process that starts with the selection of suppliers and continues all the way through the production of network elements and the lifetime of the network. Other adopted conclusions included:

• the approach to 5G network security should be comprehensive and risk-based;
• non-technical factors should also be taken into account while drawing up the supplier’s risk profile, and all the components critical to national security should only be supplied by trusted partners.

The European Union plans to ensure access to the 5G technology in all urban areas and all major surface transport routes by 2025.

The members of the Council also talked about limiting threats to the security and functioning of the networks. Ministers were also briefed on progress made on the regulation on privacy and electronic communications, following two years of work on its draft, with no consensus in the EU Council - to date, the document is not fully satisfactory for all EU Member States. The goal of the Regulation is to introduce rules on the protection of personal data and privacy in the electronic communications sector.

The meeting was also devoted to searching for ways for the European Union to become a centre of ethical use of data. Strengthening the European data-based economy is one of the priorities of the Finnish Presidency, which has been ongoing since 1 July.

“The key to boosting the European economy is to treat raw, non-personal data as a common good and share them on a voluntary and reciprocal basis. The world’s largest corporations have gained a competitive advantage thanks to the smart use of the data they collect,” said Wanda Buk, Vice-Minister of Digital Affairs in Brussels.

“To ensure effective data sharing within the EU, we need an appropriate regulatory framework to streamline the process while respecting trade secrets and different business models. We also need multilateral, cross-border projects financed at EU level, but coordinated by the countries involved, as well as technical solutions aimed at facilitating data sharing - the so-called virtual data warehouses, which need to be developed in all sectors, for sharing data on a reciprocal and voluntary basis Sharing data should not mean compromising on the high standards of personal data protection and cybersecurity,” she added.

Algorithm transparency and accountability is shaping up to become one of the key challenges faced by the European Union. It will be particularly important in the context of automated decision-making concerning people.

 In the first semester of 2020, work in the Council of the EU will continue under the leadership of Croatia, which presented its work plan in this area at the end of the meeting.

The Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council at the Council of the European Union is working to achieve the EU’s objectives in the fields of transport, telecommunications and energy. Its meetings are attended by the Ministers of Transport, Energy and Telecommunications, and in the case of Poland, the Minister of Digital Affairs is responsible for these areas