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Position Papers – AmCham Portugal

Positon Paper – Parceria com universidades americanas | Novembro 2023:

 

Position Papers AmCham EU

The future of the Trade and Technology Council

The Trade and Technology Council (TTC) is a unique forum for the EU and the US to tackle emerging issues arising from the transformation of our economies and geopolitical shifts. In the past few years, the TTC has achieved several successes that have strengthened transatlantic cooperation. However, more should be done to amplify its impact. Policymakers have an opportunity to build a TTC fit for the future: refine its objectives, simplify workstreams and increase transparency and stakeholder engagement.

The transatlantic relationship needs a platform to advance the EU-US economic partnership. The TTC has demonstrated its value for decision makers, businesses and civil society. To address existing shortcomings and leverage the positive momentum, the EU and the US should identify more focused outcomes, make the platform permanent, improve stakeholder engagement and enhance its external dimension.

The AmCham EU has published a position paper about The future of the Trade and Technology Council which you can read HERE.

EU guidelines on public procurement of cloud services

The informal Member State Cloud Cooperation Group (MSCCG), established under the European Alliance for Industrial Data, Edge and Cloud, is developing guidelines on public procurement of cloud computing services (Guidelines). Unfortunately, the work of this group has been characterised with a lack of transparency and industry engagement. To ensure that the Guidelines are realistic and implementable, we encourage authorities to engage in open dialogues with cloud providers before they are finalised.

Unfortunately, the work of this group has been characterised for a lack of transparency and industry engagement, raising concerns about the impact that these Guidelines would have on the adoption and boost of new technologies in the EU. To ensure the forthcoming Guidelines are practicably implementable, we encourage authorities to engage in an open dialogue with cloud providers before they are finalised and published. Concretely, the European Commission should submit the Guidelines to a wide public consultation, open not only to all types of cloud providers, but also to all EU and national administrations and public agencies that use cloud services, to gather the widest possible feedback.
Against this background, this paper introduces our recommendations on what we believe are best practices and necessary components of a forward-looking and future-proof public procurement framework that fosters the adoption of cloud computing by the public sector, including our views around privacy and security, sovereignty, sustainability and energy efficiency, requirements and skills among others.

The AmCham EU has published a position paper on EU guidelines on public procurement of cloud services which you can read HERE.

Critical Raw Materials

Many of Europe’s essential industries, especially those related to future technologies, rely heavily on Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), most of which are imported from third countries.

The European Commission defines CRMs as those that are crucial for the economy but whose reliable and sustainable supply from sources within the EU is not assured. The EU extracts or produces less than 5% of critical raw materials worldwide, while EU industries account for about 20% of global consumption of these materials.

The need to address the EU’s excessive dependence on third countries, with increasing risks of dependency and supply interruptions, has led the European Commission to propose the Action Plan for Critical Raw Materials, currently under discussion. This plan is based on ensuring a sustainable and responsible supply of CRMs.

The EU emphasizes the importance of domestic supply of CRMs by increasing extraction of critical raw materials within the EU, promoting circular use of resources, improving recycling and supply chain resilience, and simultaneously enhancing and diversifying the supply of CRMs with countries and partners that share EU values.

Access to raw materials, alongside the recently approved Inflation Reduction Law by President Biden, cooperation on clean technology, energy and diversification of energy supply to Europe, support for Ukraine, and relations with China, are topics under discussion in EU-US relations, notably through the EU-US Trade and Technology Council.

Cooperation and transatlantic leadership on these issues will be critical to ensuring prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.

AmCham EU has published a document outlining its position on critical raw materials, which can be found HERE.

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