Legal and Political Aspects of the EU Digital Single Market: Challenges and Opportunities

The research deals with the Digital Single Market (DSM) in the EU. The DSM project represents the removal of national barriers to ensure free movement of goods, persons, capital and services in the digital sphere. It aims to address a number of both internal tasks related to the promotion of integration, and external ones aimed at enhancing EU competitiveness in the world. The author explains the choice of a theoretical approach, reveals the reasons for the DSM creation, analyzes implementation features of DSM strategy, examines the role of legal acts adopted in the DSM for EU, and the impact they have on the international regulatory practice in the digital sphere. The author concludes that while the Treaties do not contain any special provisions for digital area, Commission takes relevant actions within the framework of sectoral and horizontal policies which makes other measures necessary to take. This policy enhances the EU powers and deepens integration in certain areas. Thus, the Commission's actions can be described as the implementation of a cultivated spillover in a digital area. According to the author, the further development of the DSM will be in line with comprehensive law harmonization, resulting in the gradual expansion of the powers of supranational institutions. In addition, EU legal acts in relation to IT sector will have impact on digital regulation outside the EU.