EU Signs Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles

The EU's work on its “digital DNA“, the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles, has culminated. In the margins of the European Council, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the text together with the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala for the rotating Council presidency.

The Declaration, put forward by the EC in January this year, presents the EU's commitment to a secure, safe and sustainable digital transformation that puts people at the center, in line with EU core values and fundamental rights. The Declaration shows citizens that European values, as well as the rights and freedoms enshrined in the EU's legal framework, must be respected online as they are offline. Shaped around six chapters, the text will guide policymakers and companies dealing with new technologies. The Declaration will also steer the EU's approach to digital transformation throughout the world.

“The signature of the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles reflects our shared goal of a digital transformation that puts people first. The rights put forward in our Declaration are guaranteed for everybody in the EU, online as they are offline. And the digital principles enshrined in the Declaration will guide us in our work on all new initiatives,“ said EC President von der Leyen.

Digital transformation affects every aspect of people's lives. It offers opportunities for greater personal well-being, sustainability, and growth, but can also raise risks to which a public policy response is needed. With the Declaration on digital rights and principles, the EU wants to secure European values by putting people at the center of the digital transformation, supporting solidarity and inclusion through connectivity, digital education, training, and skills, fair and just working conditions, and access to digital public services, restating the importance of freedom of choice and a fair digital environment, fostering participation in the digital public space, increasing safety, security, and empowerment in the digital environment, in particular for young people, and promoting sustainability.

Concretely, these rights and principles mean affordable and high-speed digital connectivity everywhere and for everybody, well-equipped classrooms and digitally skilled teachers, seamless access to public services online, a safe digital environment for children, disconnecting after working hours, obtaining easy-to-understand information on the environmental impact of our digital products, control about how personal data is used and with whom it is shared.