European Commission announces 2021 work programme

The Commission’s 2021 work programme, presented by EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic today, largely takes into account the corona recession that has hit hard the global economy. Sefcovic said that EU action and coordination were required in order to avoid turning an “economic crisis into a social crisis”. 

“The European Commission (EC) will continue its efforts to secure a future vaccine for Europeans and to help our economies recover, through the green and digital transition,” said Commission’s president Ursula von der Leyen.

Under its communication, the EC stated that “we have the investment to match the vision and the ambition” focussing on the NextGenerationEU recovery instrument along with a reinforced EU budget for 2021-2027. “Our economies need continued policy support and a delicate balance will need to be struck between providing financial support and ensuring fiscal sustainability,” it further reads the EC’s announcement.

 “In 2021, we plan to table 86 major initiatives, in 44 packages, defining for the entire decade,” shared Sefcovic on social media.

Carbon border adjustment and sustainable transport

The 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals as well as the Paris Agreement will stand as the guiding tools of the EC action. On this note, some of the new steps announced by the EU executive include a proposal on a carbon border adjustment mechanism to help motivate foreign producers and EU importers in order to reduce their carbon emissions as well as a series of measures on smart and sustainable transport, including a revision of the regulation on the trans-European transport network and of the directive on intelligent transport systems.

Circular economy

The Commission proposed to continue the implementation of the circular economy action plan, looking at eco-design and sustainable products, in particular circular electronics, including improving the collection, reuse and repair of mobile phones, laptops and other devices. The EU executive also set the intention of following up the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the farm to fork strategy. 

Digital transition

As for the digital transition, a roadmap will be tabled with clearly defined goals for 2030, such as for connectivity, skills and digital public services. With regards to Artificial Intelligence, the Commission will develop legislation covering its safety, liability, fundamental rights and data aspects. A new European digital identity is also on the EC’s agenda “to make it easier to do tasks and access services online across Europe”.

Taxation and Capital Markets

Moving towards taxation issues, the EU executive said it will continue working for an international agreement for a fair tax system that provides long-term sustainable revenues. In case this attempt fails, the Commission will propose a digital levy in the first half of next year. A revision of competition rules is also on the EU’s agenda in order to ensure they are fit for the changing market environment, including the accelerating digitalisation of the economy.

The Commission is also eager to make progress on the Capital Markets Union and the Banking Union. For this matter, the EC proposed to revise the framework for handling EU bank failures, take measures to boost cross-border investment in the EU and step up the fight against money laundering. This will come together with legislation on sustainable corporate governance in view of fostering long-term sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour. The notorious green bonds were also introduced to push for sustainable financing. 

Social measures

The European Pillar of Social Rights will be the compass of Europe’s recovery when it comes to social matters. This includes a new European child guarantee aimed at reducing child poverty and inequalities, by ensuring access to health and education for all children.

Also, a new communication will be tabled for a revamped EU’s humanitarian aid, which will focus on new ways of working with EU’s partners and other donors.

A new biomedical agency

The Commission is also set to update the new industrial strategy for Europe to take into account the impacts of the corona recession. Also, a new pharmaceutical strategy will look at the security of Europe’s supply chain and ensure citizens can rely on high quality medicines.

A revamped Schengen

Additionally, they will propose to establish a new agency for biomedical advanced research and development and a new strategy for the future of Schengen and stronger Schengen rules.

The new pact on migration and asylum will also be subject of assessment. In this context, the Commission will propose a number of measures on legal migration, which is set to include a “talent and skills” package.

EU toolbox to guide Member States on the ethical use of mobile apps to fight COVID-19

On April 15th, the e-Health Network branch of the European Commission published the EU toolbox: “Mobile applications to support contact tracing in the EU’s fight against COVID-19”. This communications aims at guiding Member States on how to best use mobile apps to tackle COVID-19 while safeguarding data privacy.

The common approach aims to exploit the latest privacy-enhancing technological solutions that enable at-risk individuals to be contacted and, if necessarily, to be tested as quickly as possible, regardless of where they are and the app they are using. It explains the essential requirements for national apps, namely that they be:

• voluntary;
• approved by the national health authority;
• privacy-preserving - personal data is securely encrypted; and
• dismantled as soon as no longer needed.

Mobile apps have potential to bolster contact tracing strategies to contain and reverse the spread of COVID-19. EU Member States are converging towards effective app solutions that minimise the processing of personal data, and recognise that interoperability between these apps can support public health authorities and support the reopening of the EU’s internal borders.

Member States agreed on April 16th that COVID-19 mobile applications should not process the location data of individuals, because "it is not necessary nor recommended for the purpose of contact tracing".

"Collecting an individual's movements in the context of contact tracing apps would create major security and privacy issues," states the EU toolbox adopted by EU countries and supported by the European Commission.

The EU toolbox was delivered following the European Commission’s recommendation, released on April 8th, on apps for contact tracing. This recommendation reflects on a common Union toolbox for the use of technology and data in order to combat and exit from the COVID-19 crisis, in particular concerning mobile applications and the use of anonymised mobility data.

The recommendation sets out a process towards the adoption with the Member States of a toolbox, focusing on two dimensions:

• A pan-European coordinated approach for the use of mobile applications for empowering citizens to take effective and more targeted social distancing measures and for warning, preventing and contact tracing; and
• A common approach for modelling and predicting the evolution of the virus through anonymised and aggregated mobile location data.

Additionally, on April 16th, the Commission published the EU approach for efficient contact tracing apps to support gradual lifting of confinement measures. Also on April 16th, the European Commission published guidance on the development of new apps that support the fight against coronavirus in relation to data protection. 

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Member States, backed by the Commission, have been assessing the effectiveness, security, privacy, and data protection aspects of digital solutions to address the crisis. Contact tracing apps, if fully compliant with EU rules and well coordinated, can play a key role in all phases of crisis management, especially when time will be ripe to gradually lift social distancing measures.

The Commission guidance sets out features and requirements which apps should meet to ensure compliance with EU privacy and personal data protection legislation, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive. However, the guidance is not legally binding. It is without prejudice to the role of the Court of Justice of the EU, which is the only institution that can give authoritative interpretation of EU law.

The present guidance addresses only voluntary apps supporting the fight against COVID 19 pandemic (apps downloaded, installed and used on a voluntary basis by individuals) with one or several of the following functionalities:

• Provide accurate information to individuals about the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Provide questionnaires for self-assessment and for guidance to individuals (symptom checker functionality);
• Alert persons who have been in proximity for a certain duration to an infected person, in order to provide information such as whether to self-quarantine and where to get tested (contact tracing and warning functionality);
• Provide a communication forum between patients and doctors in situation of self-isolation or where further diagnosis and treatment advice is provided (increased use of telemedicine).

This guidance does not cover apps aimed at enforcing quarantine requirements (including those which are mandatory).

By the end of April 2020: Member States with the Commission will seek clarifications on the solution proposed by Google and Apple with regard to contact tracing functionality on Android and iOS in order to ensure that their initiative is compatible with the EU common approach.

Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism | VPRO Documentary

'“Surveillance capitalism,” Zuboff writes, “unilaterally claims human experience as free raw material for translation into behavioural data. Although some of these data are applied to service improvement, the rest are declared as a proprietary behavioural surplus, fed into advanced manufacturing processes known as ‘machine intelligence’, and fabricated into prediction products that anticipate what you will do now, soon, and later. Finally, these prediction products are traded in a new kind of marketplace that I call behavioural futures markets. Surveillance capitalists have grown immensely wealthy from these trading operations, for many companies are willing to lay bets on our future behaviour.”

While the general modus operandi of Google, Facebook et al has been known and understood (at least by some people) for a while, what has been missing – and what Zuboff provides – is the insight and scholarship to situate them in a wider context. She points out that while most of us think that we are dealing merely with algorithmic inscrutability, in fact what confronts us is the latest phase in capitalism’s long evolution – from the making of products, to mass production, to managerial capitalism, to services, to financial capitalism, and now to the exploitation of behavioural predictions covertly derived from the surveillance of users. In that sense, her vast (660-page) book is a continuation of a tradition that includes Adam Smith, Max Weber, Karl Polanyi and – dare I say it – Karl Marx.

Viewed from this perspective, the behaviour of the digital giants looks rather different from the roseate hallucinations of Wired magazine. What one sees instead is a colonising ruthlessness of which John D Rockefeller would have been proud. First of all there was the arrogant appropriation of users’ behavioural data – viewed as a free resource, there for the taking. Then the use of patented methods to extract or infer data even when users had explicitly denied permission, followed by the use of technologies that were opaque by design and fostered user ignorance.

And, of course, there is also the fact that the entire project was conducted in what was effectively lawless – or at any rate law-free – territory. Thus Google decided that it would digitise and store every book ever printed, regardless of copyright issues. Or that it would photograph every street and house on the planet without asking anyone’s permission. Facebook launched its infamous “beacons”, which reported a user’s online activities and published them to others’ news feeds without the knowledge of the user. And so on, in accordance with the disrupter’s mantra that “it is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission”.'

White Paper on Artificial Intelligence

The European Commission has launched on February 19 a White Paper on “Artificial Intelligence – A European approach to excellence and trust” which is open for consultation until May 19. This document builds up on existing documents such as the “Report: Artificial Intelligence a European perspective” from 5 December 2018, the “Coordinated Plan on AI” from 7 December 2018, and the “Political guidelines for 2019-2024” launched by the new president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

With this White Paper, the European Commission aims to be at the forefront of the next (industrial) data wave by creating a so-called "ecosystem of excellence" and "ecosystem of trust" to boost the uptake of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and address the risks associated with certain uses of this new technology.

The White Paper on AI outlines Europe’s plans to regulate the Artificial Intelligence sector, adding to and expanding on the Commission’s aims to better prepare Europe for the digital age. Additionally, the White Paper contains the Commission’s framework for a formal regulatory body focused on AI, but doesn’t propose specific rules or laws to be adopted.

Overall, the White Paper recognises the opportunities AI presents to Europe’s digital economy and its different sectors, and presents the Commission’s vision for a coordinated approach to promoting the uptake of AI in the EU and addressing the risks associated with certain uses of AI.