Q2/2019 - EuroDIG

The Hague, 18 - 20 June 2019

The 12th European Internet Governance Forum EuroDIG took place from 18 to 20 June 2019 in The Hague. Initially, 800 participants from more than 50 countries had registered for the conference. The conference was hosted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Dutch government. The keynote was delivered by Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society. In her speech, Gabriel followed the narrative delivered by France's President Emmanuel Macron at the 13th IGF in Paris (November 2018) and Chancellor Angela Merkel at the World Economic Forum in Davos (January 2019) and advocated a new approach to Internet regulation based on the rule of law. Gabriel supported the multistakeholder model, praised EuroDIG as an excellent discussion platform and advocated active European participation in the discussion of the UN report on digital cooperation[1].

During the discussion, all relevant Internet topics were addressed. The focus was on cyber security, the digital economy, human rights and new technical developments such as DoH/DoT. EuroDIG’s new approach to continue the discussion on individual topics from the plenary sessions in the workshops and breakout sessions has proven successful. However, it entails the risk of silo formation and a reduced interdisciplinary discussion.

EuroDIG benefited from the report of the UN High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation published a week before the conference. The report had a stimulating effect on the discussion. EuroDIG has now set up a structured discussion platform for the UN report, which has the task to capture the European response to the report until the 14th Annual Meeting of the IGF in November 2019 in Berlin[2]. The 13th European Internet Governance Forum (EuroDIG) will take place in June 2020 in Trieste, Italy.

Mehr zum Thema
EuroDIGQ2/2019
  1. [1] Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, EURODIG, Den Haag 17. Juni 2019. „We must focus on technology governance. Cutting edge digital technologies such as artificial intelligence or blockchain will not only change the way the Internet works. They will bring the digital transformation to another dimension. They will shape our economies, our societies, and individuals themselves. This comes from a simple fact, technology is not value-free or value neutral. On the contrary, it is permeated by the values. Its developers incorporate or fail to incorporate in the design of technologies, interfaces or software. And all of these questions are central for our future and I think that we can agree, they are highly political. Indeed, this is about choosing the type of society we want to live in. Do we want a society that is at the service of people or a society where people are manipulated by digital actors with the help of artificial intelligence and big data? Do we want a society that protects children or a society that overwhelms them and addicts them? Do we want a society where companies is competition or a society where businesses operate on a level playing field? These are critical questions for our common future and Europe's approach to answer them is different from some other approaches. And I think that we can be proud of Europe, because we are certainly the first to raise these issues, and to put forward a comprehensive approach with an attempt to ensure that innovation is driven by an ethical, sustainable and human centric Internet. The European Union has not shied away from its responsibility, and we did not hesitate to regulate digital technologies and services, whether our values, such as privacy, security, openness, or fairness were at stake. And make no mistake, the development of Internet regulation is only at its beginning. The events of the last few years, be they attacks by malware, the legal use of the personal data of user of social networks, the increase of legal content and the violence online, or the dissemination and the spread of false information remind us that self-regulation of the Internet has clear limits. Of course, we should look forward not backwards and bring innovation into our policy making. Emerging technologies roll normative approaches to policy and regulation. To this end, we support the experimentation of new, more holistic ways of doing policies in the Internet era. In particular, by better articulating different policy instruments, from innovation policy and co-regulation and regulation. New approaches can be tested in particular at the local level, with the help of regulatory sandboxes. We also think that policies can be made effective and innovation friendly without losing legal certainty. But beyond regulation, we have established soft governance mechanism in the form of multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder expert groups, which will provide guidance for us as policymakers. In this way we have two examples. On the one side, this kind of group already have a great result. It's about the ethics guidelines on artificial intelligence and the other one, it was the launch of the international association for trusted blockchain. We consider the multi-stakeholder expert groups as pioneers of this innovative approach which could be replicated on the global Internet Governance scene bringing experts from many different fields to the table, together with governments, online providers and civil society. So multi-stakeholder and multidisciplinary policy formulation are needed to address the wide range of societal challenges raised by digital technologies. And to Europe, we will continue to work to develop international partnerships with like-minded countries, covering innovation actions, regulatory alignment, for example in the field of data protection and Internet governance. This is why we as a European Union, we already had -- we already put in place several dialogues with third countries, because the aim is very clear, to enhance our cooperation on digital matters and to see how we can really shape this digital transformation together. We already have some important common initiatives with the Mediterranean regions and Sub-Saharan African and yesterday I participated in the European development days and that was a great occasion to popularize the reports of the digital task force. I'm one of the cochairs, but another important region for me is Western Balkans. We already have a very good cooperation with them, especially in the framework of the southeast. And we work on Internet Governance. We have really to continue to promote this regional cooperation. And this, naturally takes me to the third response. We need to look for words and build on Europe's leadership. I'm deeply convinced that Europe has a fundamental role to play in the coming years, leading the way towards a new approach for Internet Governance, based on inclusiveness, effectiveness and relevance. An approach that promotes our fundamental values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. There is a clear opportunity ahead of us. The next European Commission will be in a position to take a clear and strong position in the face of the significant challenges that exist in this field of Internet Governance. Concretely, this could be the basis for a meaningful European contribution in response to the important issues raised by the UN Secretary General's high-level panel on digital cooperation. This is where I also see a fundamental role for EuroDIG and its community.“ See: https://eurodigwiki.org/wiki/Keynote_01_2019#Transcript
  2. [2] See: https://comment.eurodig.org/digital-cooperation-report/