We need new plans to improve the competitiveness of the EU

The conference "i2010 - A European Information Society for Growth and Employment" held in Budapest on October 20-21 was a success, Professor Christian Kirchner says. According to him, the European Union ought to develop new plans to improve its competitiveness. A professor of the Chair of Law and Economics at Humboldt University, he answered the questions of ENCOMPASS on the second day of the conference.

Christian Kirchner

What do you think of this conference?

Could you present us your research area in a few words?
- I am an economist and a lawyer; I work in the area of regulation of telecommunications, at Humboldt University in Berlin. Network economics and network regulations belong to my specialisation area as an economist. As a lawyer dealing primarily with competition law regulations, I believe that the i2010 programme figuring in the title of this conference is facing big challenges. The objective of the i2001 programme is to integrate, modernise and expand the scope of the rules and tools available within the European Union in order to promote the so-called digital economy. This five-year programme represents a portion of the Lisbon Strategy approved by the EU Member States in 2000, where the objective is to make Europe becomes the most competitive economic region in the world by 2010. In addition to specialists, the feasibility of this objective has been questioned by some of the EU politicians, too.

At this conference, too, EU's Lisbon Strategy fiasco was also mentioned - if we can use this word.
- We can. I fully agree with those who speak about a fiasco in connection with the Lisbon plans. In my opinion, the plans approved in 2000 are not only to be renewed, but some deep-going changes in its structure should be also implemented. There is no need for the EU to attempt to enforce its will and plans with more regulation. To make Europe more competitive in the future, we ought to stimulate people and enterprises to make further investments instead.

How would you visualise that?
- In order to improve the situation, we should, at any rate, liberalise and deregulate the market this is the only solution. In other words, we should create more room on the markets for competition, with regulation and bureaucracy should be driven to the background.

What about the contrast between the new and the old Member States? As far as I know, in certain areas, the old Member States - such as Germany - take lessons from new members. There we have the example of Estonia, where e-governance stands at a higher level than in many of the old Member States.
- The main thing here is that the old Member States develop and grow at rates that are substantially lower than the countries having joined the EU in 2004. And actually, there are some areas where we can learn from the newly arrived countries. In particular, we can learn a whole lot in issues like how to manage problems with regulation or tax systems. The latter is, for instance, an outstanding example to show that in several areas, the new countries are ahead of the others. It is sufficient to mention only Slovakia or Estonia.

In your opinion, when can the real digital age start? Some experts connect this with internet-penetration, and they say that we will enter the new age and we will reach a new level of telecommunications and of the information society when every second household will have access to broadband internet.
- I think that in this area, a technology change is going on, and this can actually induce serious changes. The new Member States, more exactly the eastern Member States are in a very lucky situation, as they have got to spend only on the newer technologies, which represent a certain compound of classic networks - such as telephony - and mobile or cable networks. This way, they can obtain a serious competitive advantage over the older countries of the EU.

Shall there be in the future a "winning" technology, eventually, with the integration of the advantages of all former technologies?
- I think that there will be several technologies to remain viable. The use of the different tools will be shaped by the needs. I mean, there will be some areas where the technologies of mobile communications will be used and, at the same time, the era of the cable networks shall not be over in the near future, because these will be also necessary in certain cases. Christian Kirchner has been a professor of the Faculty of Law and Economics of the Humboldt University in Berlin since 1993. As a visiting professor, he has been to Japan, China, the United States, Vietnam, Slovakia and Hungary as well. He is an expert on regulations in the US, Japan, China and the EU. His areas of specialisation are: antitrust regulation, bankruptcy law and accounting law.At the conference, he moderated the discussions about the possibilities of broadband internet use.