Cloud Computing as a Strategic Asset: European Union Regulatory Inititatives

Given the tremendous increase of activity in the digital domain, whether government related activity or digital economy activity, it was important that this sphere would be regulated and that stakeholders were subjected to regulation that would allow democratic the democratic principles to prevail. The paper presents the policy steps taken by the EU in relation to the Data-based Economy, mainly exploring the five projects led by the EU and that are related to Cloud Computing as a new space for solidifying the single market. It also discusses the challenges that EU-based business enterprises experience when they use facilities and cloud computing storage services situated outside the EU, thus challenging the efficacy of the related existing sets of EU rules. It also analyses the effectiveness of specific sets of rules that have been proposed in respect to the five strategies that are currently in the focus.