Stop harmful IT regulation

IT&Telekomföretagen writes in Dagens Industri, 091104, about next week's EU ministerial meeting in Visby and the report that forms the basis for the meeting

Next week, representatives from all over Europe will gather in Visby, Sweden, led by Minister for Infrastructure Åsa Torstensson and Commissioner Viviane Reding, to outline the EU's new IT policy.

The theme is "Creating impact for an eUnion 2015". The discussions are based on a report commissioned by the Swedish government. The report contains many good and relevant proposals. But on a couple of crucial issues, the authors are way off the mark. If the proposals go through, the EU's new IT policy could instead become a serious obstacle to innovation and entrepreneurship.

The report proposes that public procurement should require products to be based on open source code. This means that new systems being built should be widely and freely available. The authors believe that the position of companies such as Microsoft, Google and Intel in the IT world is harmful to Europe and must be reversed.

It also advocates a substantial expansion of the areas to be regulated in advance. In the same way that the Swedish telecommunications market is currently regulated by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), other "infrastructure" - including dominant software and hardware - should also be subject to ex ante regulation. This means that pre-regulated conditions for prices etc. will apply.

Europe is in dire need of innovation. It is a prerequisite for creating new businesses, jobs and economic growth. But you can't build successful businesses with law and bureaucracy. Who will want to invest in new products if regulated market shares or open source code must continue to apply? Is it even possible to recoup the investments you make? How likely is it that new European IT companies will emerge if innovators and entrepreneurs risk being regulated?

Open standards and open interfaces - freely available descriptions of how programs and systems should 'talk' to each other - are obviously required. But if Europe is to develop competitive IT companies, innovators and entrepreneurs must be able to protect their intellectual capital and capitalize on their investments, without the risk of competitors free-riding on the results.

Microsoft, Google and Intel are three extremely successful companies that have made a big difference. Thanks to these companies, new services are created based on their innovations, providing employment and generating profits, which in turn can be used to build new businesses. They are expanding, researching and developing, not only in the US but all over the world. Europe has much to learn from them. Åsa Torstensson must make it clear at the Visby meeting that the proposals for increased regulation and mandatory open source do not promote the development of a successful European IT industry.

I hope that the Visby meeting will be successful, both for the future competitiveness of the EU but also for the European IT industry, where there is room for different business models. After all, it is ultimately in the relationship between supplier and customer that it is decided which business models will be competitive and sustainable.

Anne-Marie Fransson
Director
IT&Telecom companies within Almega

Article published in Dagens Industri, 091104