#EAPM: Digital single market angel Gabriel deserves more support

Digital Economy and Society Commissioner Mariya Gabriel has come in for some criticism of late, but there are arguments that suggest this is a little unfair, writes European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) Executive Director Denis Horgan.

First, the background: Gabriel is the head of the EU executive’s digital strategy and, as a young Bulgarian MEP, she was parachuted into the college of Commissioners in July 2017, taking over from Günther Oettinger. She was first elected to the European Parliament in 2009.

On arrival at the Berlaymont, the 38-year-old’s task was, and remains, to complete the digital single market with €415 billion at her disposal to turn Europe into a worldwide technology giant.  Obviously, she wasn’t in situ from day one of the current Commission and, since taking over the job, it is true that not all of her plans have come to fruition. Several are floating, including telecoms reforms and copyright changes in the digital sphere.

But to be fair, it’s a tough job for anybody and she’s been in it for less that a year.  Some critics have accused her of lacking political weight while at the same time conceding that changing the digital single market is a big ask. It’s not the easiest thing to do to quickly ‘learn on the job’, especially with this particular job.

Anyway, she is not without some profile. Gabriel was nominated by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, as chief of the EU Electoral Observation Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was elected Vice-President of EPP Women in late 2012.  She became head of the Bulgarian EPP Delegation and Vice-President of the EPP Group responsible for relations with Mediterranean countries. And she twice won the parliament’s in-house magazine’s annual MEP Award (2013 and 2016).

She has also been acclaimed for her work in highlighting violence against women and for her fight for gender equality. Gabriel has also worked on external and internal EU policies, migration, visa policy, and relations with Africa and the Middle East.  Indeed, such is her affinity with the European Parliament that she had a good go at rallying MEPs when there were moves to water down a Commission proposal on audiovisual geo-blocking (with the aim of making more online TV shows available across borders).   Meanwhile, Gabriel has made healthcare a focus within her DG, a strategy that will be recognized in the upcoming Digital Day 2018 (10 April), via a push to join forces regarding data and personalised healthcare.

This dovetails with a call from MEPs via letter (see attached) regarding a Million European Genomes Initiative (MEGA).   Given that the digital single market also covers huge areas such as transport, energy and telecoms when it comes to data, Gabriel’s decision to also put a focus on healthcare has received recognition among stakeholders in the field..  Perhaps oddly, given this pretty impressive background, as a commissioner Gabriel has been accused of lacking a clear vision, with many feeling that Jean-Claude Juncker’s own thoughts and schemes in this area are now dead in the water. She does, to be fair, seem to rely a lot on Com-mission vice president Andrus Ansip as she attempts to move the goalposts in the digital single market.  Indeed, on the audiovisual geo-blocking issue, Ansip weighed-in alongside Gabriel, although they were both thwarted in the end. The parliament’s legal affairs committee and plenary voted against their main proposals.  One of the key goals for the relatively new commissioner is to get Europe up to 5G standard in the next decade, but it’s unclear where the necessary cash will come from, and critics also add that she lacks technical nous.  But she is a young, career politician handling what most would concede is a tough brief. And sta-keholders operating within Gabriel’s remit have also often not presented, in a clear way, what they actually want. Meanwhile, more than 400 parliamentary amendments to the General Data Protection Regulation have hardly helped things to run smoothly.

Things are changing so fast, not least in the arena of health, that Gabriel task is a challenging one, to say the least. There are scientific breakthroughs seemingly all the time, new ways to capture data and use it, plus plenty of novel methods when it comes to interpreting evidence in the data sets and thus building the tools to establish value.   The whole arena is essentially in a state of flux, and Gabriel is forced to swim with the tide to a large degree rather than waste energy taking up arms against a sea of troubles.

The issues are labyrinthine, although many will concede that the EU has at least recognized that much needs to be done regarding the healthcare environment across the bloc - and that’s arguably half the battle. She is, at least, not alone.  Unfortunately, completing the digital single market is a multifaceted issue that involves more than one European Commission DG, and being in a democracy it is of course necessary to have consultations rather than using a battering ram to get policies in place.

On top of this data issues or not totally centralized, but are affected by national and regional is-sues, so in a similar way to the Commission trying to avoid wasteful and time-consuming duplication with its new move on health technology assessment, the same is happening in this area.  Member state co-ordination and interoperability are key to Gabriel’s brief. So good luck with that one!  After a lot less than a year in the job, it’s hard to accept arguments that she is moving too slowly. The task she faces is akin to turning around an oil tanker and, while we all want to head in the right direction, this takes time.  Down the line and after the Easter break, there will be a Commission Communication on Digital Transformation. Frameworks are clearly being put in place, but these have to be trusted. A ram-rod approach will not work and an awareness that things are changing very rapidly in the data field, among others, is vital.  Despite some saying that she is too low profile, this is also not necessarily true.

Gabriel is attending negotiations, and spending much of her time trying to tackle disinformation. A ‘fake news’ strategy should be ready by April, for example. That’s handy given that we are only just over one year from the next round of Parliamentary elections.  It is true that some industry people think progress everywhere else is too slow, and that the ‘fake news’ brief should not be central to Gabriel’s job - or at least she should spend less time working on it.  But the Bulgarian is fighting the good fight in an area that needs to brought up to speed, and she needs to strike deals with member states' governments, which is never easy, of course.  With a very tough job, surely Gabriel deserves more support and a lot less criticism.

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