The Internet of Things is becoming the focus of many discussions in the European Institutions. Policy makers are responding by developing several initiatives focussing on different aspects. Following the outcomes of the 2013 public consultation, the European Commission designed a full range of actions aiming to deploy IoT within the Digital Agenda. In particular, mobile access should be provided in a competitive, low-cost and cross-border manner to allow Machine-to-Machine and IoT applications to flourish.
In March 2015, the Commission improved its efforts by launching the AIOTI (Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation), with the aim of supporting the policy dialogue and engaging with the Internet of Things ecosystem. The AIOTI recently published twelve Reports containing the “Recommendations for future collaborative work in the context of the Internet of Things Focus Area in Horizon 2020” covering the main focus areas of the Internet of Things (IoT) Work Program 2016-2017. The documents can be dowloaded here.
In addition, the Internet of Things is a topic of great interest in the DSM strategy, released on 6th May 2015. An ambitious overhaul of the telecoms regulatory framework (2016) and a European ‘Free flow of data’ initiative will tackle restrictions on the free movement of data, data portability and interoperable systems.
