The French Digital Council has issued on April 28th an opinion on the free flow of data in Europe. Following today’s conference in Tallinn on the single digital market, the Council issues two notes that precise its position on both the portability of non-personal data and on the abolishment of data localisation restrictions. The French Digital Council wishes to remind that barriers to data circulation are mainly to be found in lock-in strategies and retention actions among economic actors, rather than in national barriers.

Introduction

First of all, I would like to thank the European Commission for leading this dialogue on the data economy and the permanent representation of France to the EU for organizing the participation of the French Digital Council to this discussion.

As part of its strategy for the Digital Single Market, the European Commission has announced in January 2017 the preparation of several initiatives to develop a data-driven European economy.