EU Statement - Informal Consultations on the Global Digital Compact

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EU Statement - Informal Consultations on the Global Digital Compact

01.07.2024 Press and information team of the Delegation to the UN in New York

New York, 1 July 2024 - Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States at the Informal Consultations on the Global Digital Compact, delivered by H.E. Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis, Permanent Representative of the European Union Delegation to the United Nations.

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Excellencies, Co-facilitators,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The EU strongly supports a multi-stakeholder and inclusive global digital governance,and is engaging to shape an effective multilateral system advancing a human-centric and sustainable digital transformation, and a free, inclusive, open, safe, secure, and equitable digital future for all.

The EU and its Member States already actively support partner countries in advancing their technological sovereignty and accelerating their digital and green transitions, through massive global ODA, capacity-building, and investments. Increasingly, these funds are directed toward digital infrastructure to bridge the digital divides, as well as enhancing outcomes in health, education, and agriculture.

Our support for an ambitious Global Digital Compact reflects that commitment. We support a GDC that addresses the benefits that digital technologies might bring to humanity, and mitigates their risks. It should be framed by international law and underpinned by a human rights-based and multistakeholder approach, as these are key to achieve an inclusive digital future for all. Technology without legal guardrails compatible with international law, devoid of values, and without the active engagement of those who make it, use it, and are affected by it, could lead all of us to a very dark future.

The EU acknowledges the commendable efforts that have gone into the process, from the co-facilitators as well as all fellow delegations. We are currently analysing the recently distributed rev2 to reach a group position. Allow me to make a few immediate remarks about the elements the EU will need to see in the final text.

We thank the co-facilitators for their efforts to reflect the various positions. The GDC should be a universal document, one that identifies common principles and objectives that every single country can support. It should also be universal enough for other stakeholders to endorse, so that we can work together to bridge the digital divides, tackle concentrations of technological capacities and market power, and achieve a twin transition worldwide. It is our conviction that only a human-centric and human rights-based approach to digital transition, grounded in environmental sustainability, can ensure that digital technologies benefit all.

The final text must be rooted in the international human rights framework and the 2030 Agenda, mutually reinforcing and interdependent. We regret the weakening of the human rights references in rev2. To give but one example, we ask to strengthen the language around the role of OHCHR in providing necessary digital and tech expertise through the Digital Human Rights Advisory Service, as a much-needed tool for a timely and expert-driven assistance to all stakeholders worldwide.

We must also reaffirm the multistakeholder approach to digital governance, and safeguard the role of the different stakeholders that governments rely on to navigate the digital space. Those include the tech community, the private sector, academia, civil society, but also UN entities. We believe that digital governance must be approached in a decentralized manner to ensure adequate involvement of all stakeholders, and would not be able to support the creation of centralized multilateral structures that marginalise the multi-stakeholder approach.

As I mentioned, we are still assessing the text. At first glance, we welcome that rev2 has revised the language regarding the various proposals for new entities and mechanisms. We appreciate the explicit link made with the work of the CSTD to discuss principles of data governance, as the EU cannot support an intergovernmental framework in that critical space. We also look forward to discussing in more detail the proposal for an International Scientific Panel on AI and emerging technologies. However, we still do not understand the added-value of the proposed AI Fund, which in our view would divert already scarce financial resources from existing instruments.

Finally, we welcome the reference to the IGF's role in implementation and follow-up of the Compact. We reaffirm the important role of the IGF as the key platform for Internet governance and the promotion of an inclusive, accessible, open, safe, secure and equitable digital space based on a multistakeholder approach. The IGF is essential in following up and monitoring implementation of the Compact's commitments.

Colleagues, as a leader in technological innovation, values-based regulation, and global capacity-building, the EU remains committed to the process, and will continue engaging constructively in the creation of an ambitious GDC. A GDC that becomes a powerful instrument for fostering digital innovation, economic development, and global digital cooperation, rooted in human rights, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, sustainable development, and inclusion.

Thank you.