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Drafting interview questions The desk research questionnaire and analytical framework developed in Tasks 1 and 2 respectively were used as the basis for developing the interview questions. We developed a standard interview questionnaire, which was used as a starting point and which we adopted to each specific interviewee. Such flexibility was important as the situation and background varied considerably between the interviewees. Adapting the questions to the specific answers provided by the stakeholders in the survey, the Study team was able to ask the “right” questions to maximise their input for a more comprehensive picture of the operation of barriers in their Member State.

Contacting stakeholders and organising interviews In concurrence with the design of the interview questions, selected stakeholders were contacted by email in order to arrange the interviews. Emails were followed up by phone calls to confirm receipt of the email and to try and arrange interviews in a timely manner.

Holding interviews and reporting The interviews were structured to be conducted either through conference calls or video calls (using Skype) with the interviewees. Each interview lasted between thirty to forty-five minutes and it followed a similar outline, namely: a brief introduction to the study by the interviewer, a tour de table of the parties, discussion of specific questions and answers, a description of the next steps of the study and explanation of how and when the interview reports would be used and any anonymisation requirements. During the interview interviewees’ views and experiences were discussed in detail, with regard to data location restrictions impacting them and/or their organisations and / or their sector to gain a better understanding of the local situation and practical operation of data location restrictions and /or barriers. Following the interview, an interview report was written up and sent to the interviewees for feedback and validation, after which the reports were revised and finalised. The validated Interview reports were sent to the EC as attachment to the First Interim Progress Report and any remaining reports were thereafter sent by email. These can be found in Section 6 (Annex III). Please note that not all interview reports can be made available due to anonymisation requirements of certain organisations.

3.3.3 Preliminary interview results and analysis The study team has carried out twenty interviews, across the main relevant sectors, where the interviewees have a presence in a specific Member State or across the EU or even globally. A majority of interviews (11) were held with stakeholders from industry, more specifically with companies operating in cloud computing services and/or the telecommunications sector and associations representing those companies either at national, EU level or globally. Two of these were SME’s and three were Industry Associations that represent (amongst others) SMEs. Three interviews were conducted in the financial sector and two with organisations that are active in the health sector. Four interviews were held with a public sector authority. Below we provide a summary of the interviews, divided per sector.

Industry It appeared from our interview with European Business Association Business Europe that their members are generally keen to acquire more knowledge on the existing national legal /regulatory data location restrictions. Additionally, there seems to be an appetite for a reduction in unjustified data location restrictions across EU Member States; a lot of businesses find that the current patchwork of legal requirements with regard to data location and cloud makes it difficult to provide and / or develop cross border services within the EU.