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Bitkom welcomes the European Commission’s Data Act proposal and its intention to increase the breadth and depth of data usage and innovation within the European Single Market as this will help to fuel the digital transition by offering countless new opportunities to European citizens and businesses.

On Tuesday 3 May 2022, the European Commission will present a proposal for a European Health Data Space. Bitkom President Achim Berg states: "Today, the European Commission is laying the ground for patients to quickly benefit from data-based, individual therapies or treatments "made in Europe". The European Health Data Space can massively improve medical care for people in Europe and we very much welcome the EU's initiative.

The European Commission presented its proposal for the Data Act. Among other things, the Data Act is intended to advance the sharing of data between companies and from companies to the public sector, introduce new data access rights for connected devices and make international data transfer more secure.

An elaborate review process before the introduction of every digital tool, new decisions by the supervisory authorities on a regular basis and court rulings throughout Europe that can have an impact on one's own company - the data protection requirements put companies in Germany under constant pressure. At the same time, the supervisory authorities do not get good marks for their advice. Half of the companies (50 percent) say Germany is overdoing it with data protection. Two-thirds (66 percent) believe that strict data protection and the inconsistent interpretation of data protection in Germany make digitisation more difficult.