Briefing for the Impact Assessment of Data Act Has Been Published

On 14.07.2022, the European Parliament Research Service published a briefing (“Briefing”) for the impact assessment (“IA”) of the regulation of the European Parliament and the European Council on harmonised rules on fair access to and use of data (“Data Act”), submitted on 23.02.2022. The Briefing aims to provide an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the IA.

The IA defines the Data Act as a complementary instrument of the Data Governance Act and Digital Acts. In addition, the IA emphasizes that the Data Act would enable wider data use across the economy by regulating the conditions for the use of data.

The IA identifies the general objective is to maximize the value of the data in the economy and society by ensuring that a wider range of stakeholders gain control over their data and that more data is available for use

Moreover, the IA, without being exhaustive identifies four problems which all constitutes manifestations of the problem of insufficient availability of data for use and re-use in Europe. Also, it is remarkable that the IA includes several visual aids to enable making connections between the problems, their drivers, consequences, and possible policy options.

Notably, the IA observes that the problems identified and defined therein 'are not Member State-specific', and that data value chains in the EU are already structured largely in a cross-border manner. It argues that national intervention cannot guarantee a coherent framework in the entire single market and ensure comparable data access and use conditions throughout. Therefore, it concludes that 'a transversal EU solution' is required to address the problems identified and that it is 'the most efficient manner of achieving a functional and coherent common data space'.

You may find the full text of the Briefing here.