The EU Commission has issued in September 2017 (COM(2017) 495 final 2017/0228 (COD)  a proposal for a REGULATION on a framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union.

In the framework of the Digital Single Market Strategy (“DSM”) this proposal for a EU Regulation pursues the objectives as adopted in the recent Commission’s mid-term review as well as it is provided for according to the Political Guidelines for the current EU Commission. The proposal focuses on provisions of data hosting (storage) , processing services, porting of data (other than non-personal data ), and is coherent with existing legal instruments. The Commission’s initiative has been encouraged by a particular importance users  attach to new technologies in the EU  and to ensue enhancement of legal certainty ( according to user studies carried out in the EU ( eg “LE Europe Study (SART 2015/0016)). The policy intervention also builds on the “Digitising European Industry policy package theat included the European Cloud Initiative ( aiming to deploy a high capacity cloud solution for storing, sharing and re-using scientific data.

Therafter the Commission shall define guidelines on best practices in facilitating the switching of providers and to ensure that they provide (professional) users with sufficiently detailed transparent information, before contracts are concluded.