More Than a Healthy Recovery: Building a Digital Democracy

Recovery from the COVID pandemic is not the only challenge facing the EU today, said Francesca Bria, President of the Italian National Innovation Fund. The extent to which citizens have switched to online activity since lockdowns began in 2020, for everything from work and school to food and medicine, gives an early glimpse of what a new, digital society could look like. Europe now has a chance to shape that new society with European values.

“The scale, spread and speed of change brought about by digital technology is unprecedented,” said Bria, who is also Honorary Professor at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London (UCL). This means we now have “a historic opportunity to rebuild our society and economy,” she told the Brussels Economic Forum.

But success is not inevitable, warned Bria. The EU faces twin challenges of “environmental protection and digitalisation,” she said. This means a new, post-pandemic digital society can’t be built without foundations of “solidarity and sustainability.”

The pandemic has affected people’s behaviour, as lockdowns and social distancing pushed more of our daily activities online.

“We are reminded, once again, that connectivity, digital infrastructures and data are the backbone of democratic politics,” said Bria. Access to the online services and opportunities, that have been the only connection with life outside home for so many people during the pandemic, should now be seen as “a fundamental right,” she argued.

Above all, the Italian National Innovation Fund president said, this is an opportunity for Europe. The EU can now “lead the way to Big Democracy,” she explained, in a TED-style talk on “Broader Horizons.” This means “a new kind of humanism, combining innovation and dynamism with an uncompromised defence of autonomy, democracy, sustainability and self-determination.”

Much of the work has already been done by EU member states and the European Commission, she said, with Europe “justly praised for its leadership” in the digital transformation.

Successful EU initiatives highlighted by Bria include the Digital Market Act and the Data Act, with Europe showing the way to strengthen competition and antitrust policies, to curb the market dominance of digital platforms, and to revamp digital taxation.

“Europe’s focus on open-source technology markets, data interoperability and sharing, privacy-preserving standards and protocols, algorithmic transparency and accountability is to be applauded,” she added.

But for Europe to be seen as a ‘regulatory superpower’ is no longer enough, she warned. The EU must take care to remain relevant as a global economic power.

This relevance can be achieved through an ambitious pan-European digital industrial policy, Bria suggested. “Scientific and technological innovation” in Europe could also be demonstrated through investment in new capabilities and new digital skills, she said, and in promoting European digital champions.

“What is still missing is access to capital, and larger EU-wide markets in risk taking equity,” the president warned. “A fully functioning single market and pan-European regulatory regimes would make this easier.”

“We need to act even more at European level, to boost demand for native tech products suited to European conditions and preferences,” she said.

Perhaps most ambitious of all, Bria called for “a Global Green and Digital Deal, which would include binding international regulations on antitrust, taxation, digital privacy, democratic data governance, cybersecurity, and sustainability.”

We all hope not to see a return of the pandemic that has shaped our lives since early 2020. But Europe must also take care not to miss the unique opportunity provided by an unprecedented seismic shift in society, Bria argued.

“Crises, whether wars or pandemics, always feed social imagination,” Bria concluded. “New pacts must be forged; old rules must be profoundly revised.”

The EU should now move to promote a democratic, sustainable, digital future, she said.

“Europe and like-minded democratic partners have a chance to chart a progressive global path for the digital society.”