EU Tour – Meeting with Digital Europe

2017-02-07 | All chapters

DM thanked the Chamber for the meeting opportunity. MC appreciated the previous cooperation between Digital Europe and the Chamber.

The discussion started with MC giving an update on recent developments in the cybersecurity field, with a focus on the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)’s increasing power, the Cybersecurity Law, cybersecurity review, as well as the exchanges that the Chamber had with relevant Chinese government agencies. He also touched upon the Trump factor, saying that this could be an opportunity for European companies as the EU is now perceived as a more reliable partner. BF further pointed out the fast-tracked legislative process for cybersecurity-related laws and regulations, as well as the fact that the CAC is now leading all cybersecurity standardisation work.

The introduction was followed by several questions from Digital Europe members.

To start with, Digital Europe members would like to understand to what extent the inputs provided to China on draft laws, regulations and standards have been useful. BF confirmed China’s interest in learning EU practices (substantive rules rather than procedural rules). MC added it would be better to follow up the comments with face-to-face meetings.

Another question was related to recent technical regulations in China. MC shared his views about China’s standardisation reform, emphasizing the importance of reciprocity, saying that despite improvements with regard to European companies’ access to Chinese standardisation bodies, there are still restrictions. XM made reference to the National Information Security Standardisation Technical Committee (TC260)’s recently released work plan mentioning the development of mandatory cybersecurity standards in fields such as critical information infrastructure protection.

Digital Europe members also asked whether there exist a labelling system in China similar to the EU’s Internet of Things (IoT) labelling system. MC gave a negative reply, explaining that IoT is fragmented in China, hence the difficulty for such a system, and that many Chinese State-owned enterprises (SOEs) do not need to gain trust through such labelling.

With regard to China’s banking cybersecurity regulations, it was raised at the meeting that a holistic approach should be taken as relevant government agencies are receiving directions from the top leadership, and that early engagement is needed in order to make a difference.

Digital Europe briefly updated the Chamber on the recent anti-dumping regulations the European Commission is formulating. MC underlined the sensitivity of the issue and introduced the official Chamber stance which is not to become involved in such political discussions.

Following questions by Digital Europe members, with regard to EU practices, MC asked for more details about the implementation of the Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Digital Europe members gave several recommendations:

-          It is important to allow specificities of each sector rather than having rules that apply to all sectors;

-          It is important to centralise implementation rather than giving opportunity of local implementation;

-          The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not target foreign companies;

-          Companies should build good relationship with data protection authorities (DPAs) and encourage them to look at rules from a business rather than pure legal perspective.

On this, DM mentioned that Digital Europe has produced a paper on data localisation and promised to share with the Chamber.

The meeting was closed with both sides giving again their appreciation for the exchanges had.