Europe’s new tech giants hope to wield a big stick by forming new EU lobbying group

Ready to have more influence when it comes to digital policy making, a group of Europe’s most successful tech companies have announced the formation of a new lobbying organization.

Of course, no one calls it a lobbying group. Technically, the European Tech Alliance that was announced today is “designed as a resource for European governments and EU institutions to help the industry scale up and create jobs in Europe.”

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In other words, the new organization has already mastered the critical art of obfuscation. Bravo.

“We have formed an alliance to share our collective experience with policymakers and challenge mindsets about Europe, technology, and the Internet,” said Niklas Zennström, president of the group and the cofounder of Skype, in a statement.

Kidding aside, the timing is perfect for such a group.

Europe’s startup economy continues to build momentum, and it’s creating a new generation of big tech names that are ready to supplant traditional names like SAP, Nokia, and Alcatel. The roster of European tech companies that have signed on to the new lobbying organization include  King, Spotify, Rovio, BlaBlaCar, Supercell, and SwiftKey.

And the EU is still knee-deep in the process of proposing — and building support for — a byzantine series of rules aimed at creating a Digital Single Market. The hope is that the DSM can make it easier for startups to grow, or “scale-up” as Europeans like to say. At the same time, the DSM aims to bring some rationality to a patchwork of country-specific rules around things like video streaming and mobile roaming charges that continue to vex consumers.

The honcho leading the DSM efforts on behalf of the European Commission, VP Andrus Ansip, allowed his own hip-hip-hooray quote to be included in the new group’s official press release:

“I am delighted that the Alliance has come together to open a new line of communication with policymakers in the EU. Their experience of building businesses from the ground up in Europe will be an important contribution as we create a Digital Single Market,” he said in the statement.

Source: Tech.eu

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