Understanding the Electronic Signature Legitimateness for Interview Non-Disclosure in European Union

How to eSign a document: electronic signature legitimateness for Interview Non-Disclosure in European Union

well first and foremost the the shift to the right was not at all as much as as many feared um I was kind of saying no well the Centrist Pro European parties they haven't even begun campaigning yet when everybody's at oh it will be an avalanche and uh and we still have a pretty solid stable uh Centrist Coalition all pro-european and I think that is good news because we are living in a world where things are really Troublesome so you need stability leadership uh you need to be able to get things done and uh I think there will come a lot of changes in next mandates um but I don't think that they will give up on competition because competition is a very important driver to be able to deliver to Citizens and uh if you want to give an incentive or a subsidy also for businesses to make the most of that they need to know that there is competition for it because otherwise you know we will't we will not be competitive without competition but it feels from the outside when looking at what's happening here that competition policy itself is a bit at a Crossroads in the sense that we are hearing increasingly this need for more strategic autonomy out of the block and at the same time competition roles are so developed here so entrenched in the way that things are done do you expect any sort of overhaul reform of the competition rule book in the next 5 years well it is a bit of a paradox because if we look at what we consider sort of our Global competitors China and the US they they enforce competition and they uh focus on competition as one of the drivers to make them more competitive and I think it's really important to take note of that that their competitiveness have not come from giving up on competition that has come by you know focusing on competition uh the Biden Administration have done done that in in three different sequences both with the new leadership of the doj and the FTC then on the first uh package for uh competition measures and then the third package for competition measures and I think it's important to to also to learn from that that competition is is part of the solution you're more resilient if companies have suppliers to choose from uh you're more resilient if you have customers uh to serve if one customer fails you you have others uh instead so I think we have a very important discussion ahead of us and uh and so far you know for instance our merger rules they have shown to be sufficiently uh flexible we can recognize you know digital competition potential competition competition in Innovation which is a really really important issue the Illumina Grail case is a good illustration of that and and uh and the state aid rules they have both been updated but they also shown that they are really uh sufficiently adaptable when we are in in a very critical situation the reason why I'm asking you is because I get to be in this privileged position right I hear from the business Community also from the policy makers and I'll just pick this example there there are several but there's a recent example of a potential banking merger in Spain that didn't go ahead because authorities said it was not going to be good for consumers and then I hear people such aseta here in Brussels telling me that what we need is a strong uh banking system bigger banks that can compete with those in the United States so how do you square the circle but but this is actually not an impossible equation because what we need is for to have more single Market uh for 10 years we've been talking about a capital single Market the legislation is in place two consecutive action plans all fulfilled what we need is for member State actually to implement if you look at the Telco sector more or less the same thing we have National Market National Regulators National rules uh that has grown up to for for National Market to become world gardeners we need single Market if we have scale in the market we can also have scale in the businesses and I get sort of I have been uh listening to and participating in in discussions about competitiveness for a very long time now I have seen no progress on creating that Capital Market that will serve European businesses we are less than half than the US market in equity in bonds and inventure capital and that is only because of resistance to integrate and to have one internal Market also for Capital so that resistance is coming from the member state level and that's what you would like to see change going forward that is why I want to see change because if you want to push for competitiveness you also need to push for what makes that happen right some states though some governments would argue that what they need is more lway to provide subsidies and you mentioned China you mentioned United States we have the inflation reduction act the EV tariffs show that there's a clear concern here about subsidies given by Chinese authorities too is there room here for European governments to step up the level of subsidies so then European companies have a More Level Playing Field when you look at it from a Global Perspective well two two perspectives on that uh first we've been we become much better to defending ourselves against unfair competition both with the trade defense mechanisms uh the um border adjustment mechanism with the foreign subsidies regulation but I think the the point is to realize that we can never outspend China or the us we can spend strategically we now have 10 of these uh uh important projects that are have a common European interest in total in hydrogen batteries microelectronics Cloud Health it's an investment in cut and EDS innovation of a hundred billion euros and that I think is a strategic way of using taxpayers money crowding in private capit Capital uh in order to get what the market will not otherwise deliver instead of thinking of copying I think it's important to find strategic ways of doing what we cannot otherwise get and then of course enhance the European model because the European model has been so successful you know we're actually delivering to our citizens this is one of the few um unions whatever you call it on the planet that delivers to Citizens and to on this topic though there's several people raising concerns about the potential likelihood that the EU over the years will continue to fall behind against China against the US ultimately do you share this concern because it seems that in Europe consumers have a choice but they might not have the jobs but we have the highest employment that we've had I think for I don't know how long and and for instance I think it's important for for people to realize that it's not for instance AI that will take your job is the other person educated to manage AI that might take your job and one of the things that Europe is is good at is actually making sure that people can use their talent get wiser over the lifetime the the recovery and resilience plan in total has set aside 18 billion EUR true for for just basic digital education so so my point is to say let's not get d it by by what they are doing in the US and in China let's stick to our guns and make sure that it actually works so be strategic be strategic and be European right let's talk about some of the ongoing work that your team is carrying at the moment one of the open investigations is related to Microsoft and teams I know you can't give us precise details of uh ongoing work but could you perhaps tell us whether this is likely to be concluded before the end of the mandate well that is very difficult you know timeline is always timelines are always difficult but it's it's interesting because actually there are many who deliver sort of tools for you to work remotely to have meetings with other people and these tools they have different properties they come from different businesses and it's really important that we keep having competition so that we keep innovating on how these tools work actually I think a lot of people were a bit disappointed during the pandemic is this it uh when we work remotely because working remotely will be part of our working life so we need competition we need innovation in in how we work and this is why it is important that you can uh multi-home as they say that you can integrate different products and and do that seamlessly however Microsoft seems to have already taken a couple of steps they have announced that not just for Europe but globally they're going to be unbundling teams from the of office is this step likely to be enough to avoid antitrust charges well on that I cannot comment uh of course it is unbundling is important because unbundling is what gives you choice to to put something else into uh your Suite of working tools uh and the seamlessness that the API actually work together also uh crucial what we will conclude I cannot say yeah however Microsoft seems to be suggesting that they're willing to go further so does that suggest that are you can you just least outline whether you are having constant or regular conversations with Microsoft on this matter on this investigation well we always have conversations uh with the parties uh but of course it's important if we if we settle a a competition issue it needs to be effective and it needs to be fast I also want to look at AI mhm um I know there's also quite a lot of work uh ongoing on this front you're also looking at some Investments actually from Microsoft in the space with open AI in particular there the issue is more around whether it's following merger rules or not any update on that front actually well we hope to get uh a bit more uh information that we have asked for for uh for some of the internal documents in in order to assess whether there's been a change of control this is basically what we're looking at and then of course with uh with colleagues uh in other jurisdictions we're also talking about uh whether we should see these different ways of organizing as a way of evading merger control uh so far we have no conclusions but I think there is sort of a global watch out uh for what this may be because it is important to be able to assess who's controlling what because the uh the AI Tech raise is not over yet is just only begun so it's really important that we do not get entrenchment of uh Ai and big Tech as we know it but making sure that many can participate in the development of of different types uh of AI because we have so many use cases so we do not just need a few large language models actually we need a competing landscape looking at some of the work you've done over the last 10 years um and looking at what's happening now on AI it's very clear that the players you have been looking at the big Tech are the same companies that are now in this AI race ultimately is this the next challenge for competition policy do you need to pay even more attention now to generative AI well I think we need to to you know Focus even more on speed and here of course it's really great that we got the digital Market act yeah because the the core platform services that we're looking at if they get hyper charged by AI uh of course this uh is something that we need to look at how would that work uh how will the ban of self- preferencing work if you put AI into your own Services if others hadn't done that yet so I think new questions will arise but with the digital markets act actually we have a very good Tool uh to look at that it's interesting you bring up the digital markets act and at the same time vssa the Digital Services act these are no doubt two big pieces of legislation that have marked this second Mandate of competition policy however some policy experts are making the comment that yes it was a good step but it's not creating change it's not leading the big Tech to actually alter their behavior what would you be your response well compliance day was 7th of March and even though things are happening very fast this is very recent we now have uh five cases uh we have more in the pipeline and what I see is that with the digital markets act we get closer and closer to the business model the changes that the dma is demanding they are changes that will touch the business model breakups even well remains to be seen But if you have to carry a second uh App Store well of course that will that will make a dent in your own app store uh if you cannot promote your own services but need to give room for competitors uh rightfully legitimately so of course that will uh potentially uh sort of um take away some of your own profits so of course this will be a very uh difficult enforcement task but even so much more rewarding because the potential for the competitors of big Tech they are really really big and and this is why the enforcement of of the dma of course is a top priority recent reports are suggesting that you're the next one in the line uh and there the DM legislation is charging Apple can you comment on that well we have a number of uh of Apple uh issues uh I find them very serious uh I was very surprised uh that we would have uh such uh suspicions of of Apple being non-compliant uh but of course it it remains to be seen uh but they are very important because uh a lot of good business happens uh through the App Store happens through payment mechanisms so uh of course um even though you know I can say this is not what was expected of such a company of course we will enforce exactly with the same uh dedication and with the same top priority as with any other business soon hopefully soon um the reason why I'm also bringing up Apple is because companies such as Spotify have also raised issues with the new changes that Apple has put forward that ultimate the build that they would face now is the same or even bigger than what was in place before and this is why I want to bring up the issue again of whether the dma is actually leading to Ultimate changes for the big Tech or are they still hiding here in between some of the well within the law well I think that you cannot judge the dma before we've had the cases and before we have finalized them because we have a tool box of fines of doubling fines of Potential Breakup of companies so we have a very strong toolbox to uh punish and now the investigations are ongoing and one of the things we're looking at of course is that if a new setup of a fee structure is de facto preventing businesses from having the benefits of the digital markets act and I think it is very telling that what we see is sort of businesses trying to evade what is 100% legitimate it is European legislation you have a good business here then you're supposed to live up to the legislation where you do your business and I expected cases um I was a bit surprised that we would have so many cases so soon and more in the pipeline but I think it comes from the fact that we're getting closer to the business model and because of that of course also the potential for other businesses to be able to compete for that business is so much bigger and that of course is very encouraging for some one who believes in competition so so just to clarify for those people that are worried about whether the commission will enforce the dma your message is yes we'll be enforcing this we not only will we be enforcing it it will be a top priority because the thing is that it's difficult to make good legislation but if it's only on paper you should have saved yourself the trouble it's only when you enforce that you change the world because only then do you change behavior that leads me to my next point which is you basically have four months left in this mandate what would be after 10 years in this role what would be your ad advice for the next person that comes and is in charge of competition policy focus on getting the job done you know everything this world that we live in is about speed it will never be the same because the ones who breaks the law they have no obligations us to enforce the law of course we have obligations of due process uh access to evidence all of that but that being said focus on what is important uh what has the strongest deterence uh the cases that will have the strongest effect because getting the job done that is the most important thing that you can do what do you think is going to be uh the next challenge because earlier we were suggesting that we were commenting on how this second mandate was particularly different difficult compared to the first one with the pandemic with the war and so on obviously there are certain events that you cannot prepare for but what would you say what do you foresee as the next big challenge for whoever takes over competition policy well I think it's important to get back to what we call sort of normal State rules yeah um I think it's very interesting what lettera has suggested to make you know what you have spent previously as sort of part of what you should contribute to a European spending uh on some issues could be cutting edge uh Innovation uh could be other things so there will be very interesting discussions in how to make sure that when we invest more strategically maintain the Level Playing Field and competition because competition is what makes your Strategic investment effective and we should never forget that the taxpayers who pay this they get up every morning and they pay their taxes and they expect that things are done wisely before we conclude our conversation I have to ask you any idea of why you might do next once you finish your mandate here well I may sleep for a month or so because this has been 10 years hypercharged uh but other than that um the Tes of a new mandate is they're very very very slim so uh I'm kind of looking forward to a new chapter let's see well