Last Friday, 28 April, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg held, in the framework of its initiative “In the run-up to the Spanish Presidency”, a breakfast-debate with Carlos Romero Duplá, Counsellor for Digital Transformation at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU. The presentation focused on the priorities of the Spanish Presidency in the digital sphere.

The presentation started with a brief introduction by Carlos Rodríguez, President of the Forums Committee of the Chamber, and Miguel Ferrer, Director of Strategy and Public Agenda of Adigital, sponsor of the event.

Duplá then presented the main digital priorities that REPER has set for the next six months, starting with the management of the European directive on artificial intelligence. Although it is a “promising technology”, the Counsellor assured that there is still much to be analysed in terms of AI regulation and that the Spanish Presidency is ready to work together with the Parliament.

In addition, the speaker mentioned issues that will be in the Presidency’s sights, such as the Gigabit Infrastructure Act Proposal, which seeks to present new rules to enable faster, cheaper and more efficient deployment of gigabit networks across the EU, or the European Digital Identity Proposal.

Duplá also emphasised the need to improve digital infrastructures with legislation that facilitates the work of telecom companies: “There will be no future without proper infrastructure”.

The presentation was followed by an extensive question and answer session in which attendees raised issues such as the future of connectivity, the regulation of biometric technologies and the regulation of the activity of audiovisual content creators on the Internet.