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I am very happy to address this second European Data Forum, co-organised by the European Commission.
This is the annual chance for many in the field to get together and exchange ideas:
those who use data intensively, those who extract value from it, those who use it for
research, and those who make policy for it. I am sure that the coming days will bring
a whole range of new ideas and ways to work together.
Whatever you're trying to do these days—whether you're trying to improve business intelligence,
government decision-making, or sectors like healthcare—chances are the answer lies in
data. It is a core asset in today's knowledge economy, and you are the ones who know how
to use it.
As European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, I want to support a strong European data industry:
with Europe as a decisive player in the global, data-driven economy.
How do we make this happen? We have already taken a range of measures.
First, we are opening up government data across Europe, changing the framework of laws that
apply. This could benefit our economy to the tune of tens of billions of Euros.
Second, we have just opened an "open data portal" for the Commission's own data. Already
it's packed with almost 6,000 data sets. And we are also working on a pan-European infrastructure,
bringing together open data from EU institutions and countries.
Third, we are investing in vital research and innovation on how to extract value from
data -- and we will continue to do so. Because the results of such research can be amazing.
Data offers a golden opportunity: for entrepreneurs, for businesses small and large, and for our
society as a whole. I'd like to turn that opportunity into a reality, and improve the
European data ecosystem. We need to work together to shape the European research and innovation
agenda for data. Including under the Horizon2020 programme, to stimulate startups to develop
new applications based on data. We need to shape European open data infrastructure, where
we will invest through the EU's Connecting Europe Facility. And we need to shape the
policies that matter for data users.
I hope that this conference can be a starting point for good cooperation between companies,
researchers, the European Commission and other public authorities.
So, together, let's network, develop new ideas, and make data work for Europe!