site.btaEU Commissioner Gabriel Launches Public Consultation on Fake News on November 13

Sofia, November 10 (BTA) - "On November 13, I will launch a public consultation on fake news and will announce the formation of a EU-level expert group," EU Digital Economy and Society Commissioner Mariya Gabriel told journalists at Parliament on Friday. She met with four National Assembly Committees: on Foreign Policy, on Internal Security and Public Order, on European Affairs and EU Funds Oversight, and on Transport, Information Technology and Communications.

Gabriel stressed that digital technologies are also important for the EU membership of the Western Balkans, and this should be a topic of the forthcoming Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council.

"The European Commission has 43 initiatives in the field of digital economy and society, of these 24 are legislative initiatives and the negotiations on six have been completed, which means that we stand a unique chance of stepping up progress on part of the remaining initiatives during the Bulgarian Presidency, so that they can be adopted and finalized before the end of 2018," the Commissioner also said.

Important digital economy tasks, like digital knowledge and skills, were on the agenda of her talks with the MPs of the four committees. Gabriel said that just 37 per cent of Europe's active population possess basic digital skills.

The Commissioner said that a new pilot project, called Digital Opportunity Internship, will be launched within a month. Under it, 4-5 month internships in digital technologies abroad will be available to 5,000-6,000 students in Europe who are not IT specialists.

Gabriel and the MPs also discussed cybersecurity. Cybercrime can affect not only personal data but also critical infrastructure like energy, transport and the banking sector.

The Commissioner explained the idea of EU-level certification which, for the first time, will give people information about the security level of products and will reduce the administrative and financial burden on companies and industry through the recognition of a single certificate issued in a Member State.

Internal Security and Public Order Committee Chairman Tsvetan Tsvetanov was pleased with the presentation of the relevant policies and forthcoming decisions that will be adopted by the European Commission and will accordingly commit the national parliaments as well. He specified that the reference is to 18 bills that will have to be considered during the Estonia-Bulgaria-Austria Presidency Trio.

The MPs and Gabriel agreed on more routine meetings with a direct focus on security and digitization of the labour market. In 2020, more than 90 per cent of each workplace will require computer literacy and Internet use. "According to European Commission statistics, 80 million European citizens are unable to handle a computer and the Internet," Tsvetanov added.