About

Welcome to digitaleu.net! Willkommen bei digitaleu.net! Bienvenue sur digitaleu.net !

digitaleu.net offers independent views and analyses from experts on various aspects of the ongoing digitalisation in Europe and beyond. We are likely to write mostly in English as this language is most widely understood by people interested in the digital economy or the related EU law aspects. Occasionally, we might post in either French or German or prepare summaries in German or French.

digitaleu.net publiziert Meinungen und Analysen von Experten zu verschiedenen Aspekten der Digitalisierung in Europe und darüberhinaus. Wir schreiben in diesem Blog meistens in englisch, da die Sprache die größte Leserschaft erreicht, vor allem auch wenn es sich um Inhalte im Bereich der Digitalwirtschaft oder die relevanten europarechtlichen Aspekte dazu handelt. Gelegentlich werden wir allerdings auch Artikel in französisch oder deutsch verfassen oder eventuell Zusammenfassungen von Artikeln in diesen wichtigen Sprachen publizieren.

digitaleu.net offre des points de vue des experts sur des aspects sélectionnés par rapport à la numérisation en Europe et au-delà. Nous écrivons pour la plupart en anglais comme cette langue est la plus courante pour ceux qui s’intéressent aux sujets de l’économie numérique ou bien aux aspects pertinents du droit européen. Parfois, nous publierons aussi en allemand ou en français, ou encore nous préparerons des sommaires des articles dans ces deux langues importantes.

Why this site?

It is all about the digital space in Europe!

In Brussels, at the heart of the European Union, many important decisions, concepts, legislative initiatives are being discussed (often within small expert circles) and finally taken for the citizens in the entire European Union with direct impact on our digital space, on our freedom and our privacy but very often without sufficient public participation or wider debate.

The founder and principal author of this blog is of the view that there should be more efforts to support a wider public debate and to promote a better knowledge and understanding of the issues at stake in respect of our digital future. Many developments are being decided and influenced as part of the European legislative decision-making processes in Brussels.

These decisions impact on our lives on a daily basis in a profound way. All of us might as well make an effort to better understand what is going on, and ideally before decisions are taken, mostly, at European level. For clarity: this is not a commercial site.

About the founder and principal author of this blog:

Hartmut Seibel is a lawyer and a specialist in European law.

He studied law in Goettingen, Germany. He passed his exams in Lower Saxony (“Niedersachsen”) to become a lawyer and subsequently a qualified lawyer (“Assessor”) in North Rhine-Westphalia. He has been a member of the Duesseldorf Bar (“Rechtsanwaltskammer Duesseldorf”) for decades. He started practising law in international law firms in Brussels and specialised in the area of telecommunications. He has had an active role in the setting up of the most extensive fiber-optic telecommunications network and IP backbone in Europe until 2001 (Hermes Europe Railtel, renamed “Global Telesystems” and “Ebone”). He subsequently worked as General Counsel (Europe, Middle-East & Africa) for Honeywell’s so-called “specialty materials” business and was appointed as Chair of the supervisory board of several Honeywell entities in Germany and Belgium. More recently, he acted as principal legal counsel to the European Payments Council (EPC) managing the legal and compliance matters for the EPC for ten years.

He continues practising law and providing advice primarily in certain areas of European law such as competition, digitalisation aspects, data protection, payment services and financial regulation but is also involved in international transactions. He is a partner at Alphalex Consult (EEIG) in Brussels. He is of counsel at LexQuire International Tax & Law (Maastricht, Heerlen, Duesseldorf, Brussels, Paris).

Useful links:

Public Money, Public Code! Why is software created using taxpayers’ money not released as Free Software?

Charta21.be VIE PRIVÉE ET LIBERTÉ – DÉFENDONS L’ESSENTIEL !