RIGA: The European Union must act fast to create a    single digital market or risk losing out to the United    States and China in the global arena, the bloc's internal    market commissioner said Friday.    
      "We cannot live in a developing and digitalising world      without having one single digital market in Europe," Elzbieta      Bienkowska told EU competitiveness ministers gathered in the      Latvian capital of Riga for informal talks.    
      "We do not have time any more to just discuss... now is a      time to act," she said.    
      Bienkowska noted that while US companies have access to      resources across the country, IT firms in the EU struggle      with access to financing in what she called a "fragmented      market".    
      She said the European Commission would      meet on May 6 to finalise its strategy for a single digital      market.    
      It will be part of the wider strategy to create a single      European market across all industries, she added.    
      "The main document for the single market will be proposed by      the Commission in November and this will be the Single Market      Strategy."    
      Speaking on the sidelines of the Riga meeting, France's      minister for digital affairs, Axelle Lemaire, stressed that      the EU needed to work harder to help start-ups and improve      access to credit.    
      "The French government would like the (Jean-Claude) Juncker      (investment) plan to include investment tools... so that we      can invest at the pan-European level," Lemaire said,      referring to the European Commission chief's project aimed at      reviving the continent's flagging economy.    
      "Comparatively, France is the country with the highest      number of start-ups, but there is a problem with the      sustainability of start-ups," Lemaire said, pointing to new      firms having difficulties in accessing financing over one      million euros ($1.1 million).    
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Time to create European Union single digital market: Commissioner