This article is more than 1 year old

EU digi bods brace selves for 'charm' of Microsoft, Uber et al

See, commissioneering is REAL WORK

Europe’s digital agenda commissioners will be knee-deep in lobbyists this week. Thanks to its new transparency register, the European Commission is making all of its meetings public.

This week, digital economy and society veep, Andrus Ansip, is scheduled to meet: David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer; Brad Smith, Microsoft general counsel; and representatives of taxi app Uber.

The latter has been on a full-scale charm offensive across Europe in an effort to convince authorities that it's an IT company and not a taxi firm, despite the dead giveaway of transporting people in taxis.

Before all that, however, Ansip will hook up with predecessor "Steelie" Neelie Kroes – famously pro-Uber – in her new role as Netherlands Special Envoy for Startups.

EC commissioner Vera Jourova, who is now in charge of the proposed data protection law, will also meet Smith and, more significantly given her portfolio, Drummond. We wonder if the so-called "right to be forgotten" will be high on the agenda.

Despite the new transparency about who’s talking to whom, don’t expect any controversial details of the meetings to be made public. Last week Gunther H-dot Oettinger had a “very productive” exchange of views with members of the telecoms industry... but that’s all we know.* ®

*It's worth noting that, in contrast to Ansip, Oetti has made only one blog post since taking office last November.

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like