Bucharest hosts informal meeting of EU telecommunications ministers, third Eastern Partnership Ministerial Meeting

Romanian Minister of Communications and Information Society Alexandru Petrescu will chair the informal meeting of the EU telecommunications ministers (TTE) and the third Eastern Partnership Ministerial Meeting running February 28 - March 1 at the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest. 

At the third Eastern Partnership Ministerial Meeting taking place on February 28, EU ministers for digital economy and their representatives will meet their counterparts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, with the agenda of the talks focusing on extending the benefits of the digital single market to Eastern European partners. 

The informal meeting of the telecommunications ministers (TTE) on March 1 will be attended by the EU ministers of telecommunications, as well as by Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Digital agenda. The main topics of the talks will be artificial intelligence and the post-2020 Digital Single Market Strategy. 

The current Digital Single Market Strategy was presented by the European Commission on May 6, 2015. The purpose of this document is to reduce barriers and provide more business opportunities across the EU in a legal, secure and accessible manner, create an operational digital single market and set in place the appropriate conditions allowing member states, businesses and citizens to innovate and take advantage of digitization. 

Artificial intelligence was proposed as a topic of discussion at the meeting, given its political, strategic and economic importance for Europe, as it can generate major benefits such as: disease treatment, reducing road fatalities, combating climate change, minimizing the impact of agriculture on the environment, increasing Europe's security, a.s.o. 

Ministerial informal meetings are a common practice of each Presidency of the Council of the European Union aimed at providing an appropriate framework for a common reflection and the exchange of views on issues of interest at European and international level.