The European Internet Service Providers Association (EuroISPA) has welcomed the results of the European Commission’s Digital Economy and Society Index, a study which further highlights the enabling role of the Internet sector across many areas of the European economy.

The report shows that 75{326604f503d13f2b703ea6d6d6f2aff95b8843509e3b22769667493fe00ca42d} of Europeans used the Internet on a regular basis in 2014, and that a growing number of citizens are using the Internet to access services traditionally confined to the offline world. Moreover, a growing number of European enterprises are opting to conduct business over the Internet, with increases in e-commerce (+1{326604f503d13f2b703ea6d6d6f2aff95b8843509e3b22769667493fe00ca42d}), e-invoicing (+1{326604f503d13f2b703ea6d6d6f2aff95b8843509e3b22769667493fe00ca42d}) and related web-based enterprise activities.

Indeed, the figures highlight how European citizens expect accessible content in the online sphere. In that context, EuroISPA welcomes Commissioner Ansip’s commitment in launching the Index to make it easier for Europeans to access digital content online. Geoblocking and an outdated copyright directive serve as barriers which need to be overcome to improve citizens’ online experience and enhance “digital Europe”.

Oliver Süme, EuroISPA President said “The Digital Economy and Society Index illustrates how the European economy has all the fundamentals to unlock immense digitally-driven growth in the coming years. The Internet sector has played, and will continue to play a key role in enabling various sectors of the European economy to exploit the benefits of digitalisation. With a growing number of Europeans using the Internet to conduct everything from banking to grocery shopping, the report’s figures point to the Internet sector’s role in facilitating Europe’s transition from a digital economy to an economy that has become digital”.

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The Digital Economy and Society Index

The European Internet Service Providers Association marked the 2015 Safer Internet Day by highlighting the importance of industry self-regulation in ensuring the Internet is a safe environment for all, especially the young. Counting several national hotline operators among its membership, EuroISPA fully supports the Safer Internet Day’s “lets create a better internet together” message.

EuroISPA members in France, Germany, Ireland and Austria take a leading role at national level to help ensure the internet is a safe environment for young users. Through industry-funded and managed national hotlines, a secure and confidential environment is provided where the public can anonymously report Internet material they suspect to be illegal.

As the most up-to-date INHOPE data confirms, 98 {326604f503d13f2b703ea6d6d6f2aff95b8843509e3b22769667493fe00ca42d} of all user reports to national hotlines are forwarded to law enforcement agencies within one day. Moreover, in 91 {326604f503d13f2b703ea6d6d6f2aff95b8843509e3b22769667493fe00ca42d} of cases, illegal content is deleted within three days. With over 500 000 reports made to European hotlines each year, EuroISPA calls on the EU and its Member States to maintain strong support for hotlines dedicated to ensuring a safer internet.

““EuroISPA strongly supports the principle of ‘working together for a better Internet’ that is promoted by Safer Internet Day. As Internet services rapidly evolve, fast and flexible responses are necessary to ensure downside issues such as illegal content are properly addressed. As the experience and daily work of our hotline-operating members continue to show, the distribution of illegal content over the Internet can best be tackled by the industry and its users cooperating within a self-regulatory approach, governed by the existing legal principles agreed at European level.“, said Nicolas D’Arcy, co-chair of EuroISPA’s safer internet committee.

As part of the Security Alliance For Europe (SAFE), the European Internet Services Providers Association (EuroISPA) fully supports the Commission’s intention to improve network and information security in Europe. EuroISPA shares the view that a higher level of network and information security can only be ensured if it is targeted, proportional and focuses the scarce resources on protecting what is truly critical to a country’s economic and national security, public health and safety.

EuroISPA would like to call on the institutions of the European Union to follow the European Parliament’s focus on these critical infrastructures and functions. This would improve the overall network and information security, and ensure that for example small internet service providers don’t need to unnecessarily invest in implementing systems that would duplicate reports already sent out by critical service providers.

“EuroISPA agrees that understanding the risks and organizing effective protective measures is a complex undertaking that requires close cooperation between the public and private operators. Therefore we support the intention to create a dialogue involving these entities in order to improve collective preparedness and more effectively prevent, mitigate and deal with cyber incidents and threats,” said Maximilian Schubert, Chair of EuropISPA’s Cyber crime and Security Committee.