The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
***
>> MODERATOR: Actually it works. Normally, it takes 10 seconds before these things starts to work. Yeah, welcome to the European stakeholder networking session for those who does not know what EuroDIG is it's the European IGF you, so this is not this is not on the AI governance in particular. This is a session to get to know each other, tell each other what we do. I happen to be the Chair of president of whatever the name is for the time being of something that is called EuroDIG Support Association, which is there to make sure that it EuroDIG actually exists, and there's also responsible to help raise funds, which is always an important thing.
So, yeah, we'll hear from a few people that have been and are involved in it EuroDIG EuroDIG like stakeholders you see some pictures here of the last year this year's EuroDIG which. Yeah, very nice place as it's taking place in summer, so I'll be very short and just invite you to engage to talk to each other also from regions outside of Europe, of course, because, yeah, I think there's a lot of things to exchange, so I will hand over to our Secretary General of EuroDIG, Miss her excellency Sandra Hoferichter.
>> SANDRA HOFERICHTER: So welcome, everyone. I know I was like a week here already, so I would already like to make this session as interactive as possible. What we would like to discuss today is, first of all, look back what EuroDIG was this year what the messages were, and I'm very happy to have two representatives from that Lithuanian host and business which is a extensive consultation process conducted in the European area, Mark Carvell will gives an outlook on what we're planning, and then very happily next year EuroDIG is confirmed to be at the council have European in S so un and what we can expect for next year and as a surprise we are going to release our newest publication that was released the day before we traveled to Riyadh, so it's really brand new, and we're very happy to have Sally here. First of all, oh, good I forgot her name. Lena. Lena is the digital ambassador from Lithuania and, what, happened, and you can take a seat or you can stand up. We have handheld mics whatever you feel comfortable doing. Just come to the stage.
>> INGA RIMKEVICIENE: Good afternoon, everybody. I really feel I really feel privileged to start to begin this session and to participate in this session as the representative of Lithuania. The government host of the EuroDIG 2024. Many of you knows this EuroDIG 2024 you see nice photos from there. It was hosted by the communication regulatory authorities and from the ministry of foreign affairs and transport communication and ministry of economy and innovation.
Also in collaboration with the information society development committee and various municipalities of the institution why this year and why am I doing this some of you who are already on digital matters it's time to invite the European IGF you have to our capital. Our important goal for this EuroDIG 2024 represent the vibrant local technical community and also the vibrant local technical community and also the talks during the EuroDIG 2024 from the perspective of the hosting country. Many experts from state institutions, from academia and from media and on business and indeed participating in preparing the program they were participating as speakers and also participating and listening to the sessions and active there.
I hope that that countries of lithe wana who participated in EuroDIG are really diverse and interesting. And particularly it's good to note that it coincided with the Lithuanian presidency of the community of the ministers of the council of Europe, so we were happy that the Secretary General of the council of Europe Mrs. Ma ria also participated in EuroDIG 2024 as a keynote speaker and the as the speaker, sorry. And also, were strongly engaged in all the discussions.
The digital dimension of freedom including artificial intelligence and human rights as well as the fight against disinformation where among the priorities of the Lithuanian presidency of the council of Europe and all these priorities were very well reflected in. It EuroDIG 2024 discussions. The results of these discussions and the priorities are reflected in the messages which we would like very briefly to present, and I would like to ask my dear colleague from communication regulatory authority in preparation with EuroDIG 2024 just briefly present the main messages coming from Yes.
>> Okay, thank you, Ambassador.
So I don't want to disappoint you. I definitely will not read that we have in the brochure. I'd encourage you to look at that. Maybe just to pick up on the areas that the ambassador said. We organized we would like to give a European flavor to this event and, first of all, to start with the main thing balancing regulation innovation because it's very strongly relates to the mission of the regulator and all the regulators because this is actually what we do.
We try to regulate communications market, so that they operate fairly and efficiently for benefit of all but also not to make regulation the barrier for innovations to come.
So that was really that was really very strongly related to the regulator as such.
Also what we tried to do, we tried to involved more regulators into the discussion, and we were really very happy to see many of our friends participating and speaking and from very far away countries such as Taiwan, so this really proved EuroDIG attracts interests not only from the European region but also beyond. I think Sandra will correct me we had over 100 countries involved.
And putting Lithuania as the ambassador mentioned we're really happy from stakeholders, different stakeholders starting for the preparation of that the program, participation of the sessions and also the engaged youth dimension and municipality at the EuroDIG and around the cities, and those used to be able monitory and management of target, and I think this experience was interesting and a bit short how innovative it is.
But I think the most important input from us was address the gov tech concept in the agenda of this event.
So why this so called Lithuanian topic? Because even like starting discussions at the program committee we noted there was diverse understanding of what actually gov tech is. In the Lithuanian context it's not a synonym of eGovernance, but we have a bit of an approach that's platform that is a public or private sector to collaborate and actually do the match making the challenges of digital transformation public sector.
For example, our public institutions come to the gov tech lab. It's like agency does the match making those who have challenges and have the solutions and institutions come with some problem, and they seek for innovative tools or services, and they have source from private sector companies mainly startups that say, okay, we have a solution for you. Why don't you try it? And for our experience as regulator we're looked for the ought may have solution online for looking for helpful content for our children and actually we got the solution with AI based solution and that really is our job a lot.
So consequently the gov tech was participated in if EuroDIG which utilized public sectors and utilizing data. The sessions under on this topic and subtopic provided their own view on how the governments are responding to the need to modernize public processes and services having in focus citizens as the main users of the services.
So that was agreed that actually modern governments have a lot of challenges and a lot of pressures because the transformation doesn't reap all the benefits and also concerns of privacy about possible misuse of data, also the need to ensure connectivity for the citizens especially in critical situations as COVID and natural disasters where it's disrupted, of course, the governments can't do this on their own, so this is where the private partnerships with other stakeholders can bring solution, so that was the main take away of the sessions on the topic.
As I mentioned I will not read or mention everything that was discussed. I'd encourage you to look at the brochure messages that we have in there, but you can also find more insights and discussions and EuroDIG website. I'd really encourage you to look through the interesting ideas.
And now I'm very happy to know that
(Inaudible.)
>> I just thought one day coming from Strasbourg of EuroDIG and capitals
(Inaudible.)
>> So maybe there's some languages for Christmas next meeting is in I'm looking for this event
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much, Inca. Every EuroDIG is very interesting and what made it special was the fantastic collaboration for the host, of course, but also we had an extraordinary broad cooperation from the very high level, and we had directors and CEOs participating and organizing the session, which is innovative is far so thank you all for making this possible.
At this point I would like to invite you to come to the stage because part of the messages is also a section that is looking in the GDC and the business process. I think you achieved at least something in our long process to get the NRIs into the document because they were not it mentioned in the first draft, and we take a little bit of pride bringing this into the document and Mark will give a short summary and an update.
By the way, you have questions/comments just raise your hand and let us know. It's just us. Mark, over to you.
>> MARK CARVELL: We're we go again I'm going to be brief and are we going to have the opportunity to engage with you to hear your thoughts about two stages of the compact process.
As Sandra said, we have been following the process and engaging in the whole GDC process consistently throughout. We've had webinars on the key stages sorry, okay. There we go. We've had webinars on the key stages of development of the compact. We've had sessions across discussions at the annual EuroDIG events. And is we've had updates on the website of the progress with the draft date of the compact to keep stakeholders in. European region informed of what was happening to specific parts of the compact, so we've done a lot of work, and we've engaged as Sandra said, we have spoken. I was representing EuroDIG in the consultations and cofacilitators of the GDC process undertook, and we feel we've had some impact as a regional forum.
And to break slowly a global event and, of course, the NRIs as a vital part of the whole IGF ecosystem.
And we my first question to you really is to consider the messages that we came out with, and I'll just recount very briefly what the key ones were, which I relayed to the consultations on the compact.
Firstly, we said EuroDIG offered to play its part in contributing and monitoring progress in the implementation of GDC commitments, and we expressed support for the commitment to strengthen the modest stakeholder model of governance, and we relayed EuroDIG's process should build on the strong foundations and accomplishments of the voices instead of creating mechanisms.
So those were the messages. They were very relevant and impactful, we feel, but my question to you now, and I want to hear what you think is: How we or these messages in this Strasbourg and coming out with all kinds of what messages to be aimed to come out with in Strasbourg.
So I hand over the mic to you.
>> I walk around with the mic if you raise your hand. Please introduce yourself.
>> Hello? My name is Tiargo. I'm from the region of Brazil, but I'm engaged in the internet governance for several years both at the national level but also at the IGFs. I currently live in it Brussels researching about stakeholders made different, and I would like to share I mean, just food for thought this year we are organized in Brazil a multimodal system which was a very important moment to discuss about their process like how, for example, national and regional IGF with EuroDIG connecting with the national one and how it's being shared.
This morning here we had a very nice group organized by the United Nations on regionists can contribute to the global governance, the global governance and, so my point here is I think what could be interesting is like a key to some of these regional approaches that has been done, and they tried to lack global, and there's was some input outcomes out there that that we were discussing steps to improve the multistakeholder process and maybe as part of what's being proposed that connects to what the discussions EuroDIG is thinking about. Maybe it gives the strongest support when we go to discuss implementation of the GDC especially in the upcoming meeting. That's my food for thought here.
>> Thank you, that's very helpful. I mean, evolution of the multistakeholder model building on what was in some San Paulo and how the regional IGFs such as EuroDIG can help that process. That's your main point, okay, thank you, that's a great one.
>> And if I could just chime in it's in the message of the last session with guidance as an inspiration and the San Paulo gas lines played a role in this discussion. Thank you for giving me the floor the foundation in Germany.
I don't think we need to bring the GDC to life. It's not just implementation. It should be lifestyle and implemented all the activities that we are going to take, and I just would like to recommend when you go through the endorsement process. It really helps you to understand how your own work is related to the main objectives of the digital compact. It's not like something that is ahead of us. It's going through the endorsement process will help you to understand how you can bring it to light, so thank you.
>> Yes I'm going to touch on that, in the second part of my presentation. Thank you.
>> I'm here with the IGF
(Inaudible.)
>> Thank you. Just a reminder quickly I'm showing you the objectives, and they are the 5 objectives closing the digital divide sustainable and expanding inclusion in the digital economy a open and secure digital space that promotes human rights advancing digital governance that is equitable and enhancing international governments of AI that benefits humanity.
So as was saying we should start to examine those objectives in memories of where in particular the European stakeholder community can really make its mark? Yeah if I understand correctly, yes, thank you. I hope.
Anybody else yeah. I saw a hand in the back.
>> It's me, so I'll last year that that it's the organization of meeting of the IGF, and that is also from this point, so we have these discussions on EuroDIG and national IGS et cetera et cetera but maybe there should be also the discussion of compasses and institutions that can add as the enablers of IGF work discussions hold the discussions in the nations when they have the regulatory when they have the policy and also legislative acts.
When Armenia held this internet governance council the multistakeholder body, but I can't really remember other similar institutions. We have our problems and our challenges and opportunities but maybe between this IGF sessions, IGF governance, IGF gov coordinates we should have legislators and policymakers and perhaps the regulator who have this capacity what is there and how they can be in line with I are G processes. Thank you.
>> Yep, that's a very valid point. I think there are different models of that across Europe which could be sort of compared and examined and experience identified.
I'm from the U.K. government we had a process of engaging the stakeholders on internet policy issues. We had
(Inaudible.)
>> The name has changed since I left the government, but that was one of our important mechanisms for engaging in a truly multistakeholder way with with stakeholders, so that policy is better informed as it develops in the minds of the government policymakers, so I think that's a valuable point.
Okay, anybody else before I quickly move on to my second part, which is really focusing on on the practicalities of the next phase, something that was touched upon as well.
With them we heard from Philip from the tech envoy's office this morning and the town hall meeting about the GDC, but he recognized the implementation of the compact should be at the national and regional level. That was important that that happened, and so that reinforces the points we've been making all along. That we as a regional as stakeholders needs to be engaged not only in the sort of influencing of the process of the multilateral process of negotiation but on the key follow up phase of implementation and practical achievement of the commitments set out in the compact.
So my question to you really is: How with the endorsement process and the impact that will have on developing implementation plans that Philippa was describing this morning, how would we as a European forum engage with that in a substantive and meaningful way? Given that, you know, we're not used to doing those things, but we could certainly advocate endorsement by stakeholders of the compact but should we be doing something more as a forum to support that process of developing implementation plan as well as the follow on of actually implementing a compact, so any thoughts on that would be useful at this stage as we develop our thinking about how we go about this as a European stakeholder forum next year.
Any thoughts on the endorsement implementation plan how we connect with that and how we pursue this and form in it a truly this is your silence. This is a key opportunity for EuroDIG to lead the way as a regional forum. I see Chris' hand going up. Thank you. Please introduce yourself, Chris.
>> Hi. Chris buck ridge. I'm a EuroDIG board member as well. I think this is an interesting question 'cause I think a lot of the discussions around endorsement of the GDC this week have been very inclusive I think there needs to be a bit of a discussion and consensus first on: This worthwhile and important 'cause at this stage I think some of the discussions haven't really made the case strongly this is what's in it for the community I think it's something, you know, obviously, important to the United Nations to have this buy in but what does this mean? What does endorsement entail. You're committing what does that become? It is there a discussion is there a venue? It and hopefully, that inventory yew would be that venue or a new space for endorsers to come together and talk about what they're committing to.
There are a lot of open questions that are there at the moment, and I think having that discussion in the EuroDIG community is great and something we should absolutely be carrying through to next year. I'm not sure I would start from the position of how do we see endorsement and implementation practically for EuroDIG. I would restart a little bit further back from that maybe. Thanks.
>> Thanks, Chris, very helpful thinking to the steps we might take for early next year.
>> First, a
(Inaudible.)
>> And I know right now the topic is here right now. A region looks for how in general the European frameworks very relevant making goals considering human rights not only the concierge initiatives something that could be interesting in the way I think is well, Europe has a lot of experience of framing, like creating these legal frameworks that sometimes we don't see how much it's matching with, like, what's really happening especially considering, like, the engagement and multistakeholders know they are not necessarily to be we see especially now with the new challenge, like, for example, the AI act and talking about what they call about the process. I could give an example of my topic of research, which is the regulatory sandboxes they say, oh, they should have multistakeholder process of sandboxes. And the OCD also is this happening. How is this happening so maybe what I want to share here maybe trying to map or identify how much stakeholder process is in European initiatives either like national level or just regional that has been the Braintree implementation. I work in the Brazil multiprotection part there, and they have multistakeholder council that supports several our activities, of course, it's not like the like there's some limitations how it could be Dustin, but it's a nice way having some multistakeholder groups that try to collaborate with whatever the DPA is formulating on its regulating roles. Thank you.
>> Yeah, as my earlier point looking at multistakeholder process, our experience in Europe, the different models of gaining the tool. For your contribution. I'm told I need to wrap up.
>> One more question to take, and then we wrap up this topic.
>> It's not a question because I have a question for Mark that I want to try to answer.
If you look at as IGFs we were not to come up with policies and that kind of thing I think
(Inaudible.)
>> And I think they should be proactive with the 2027 or something, and it's totally different
(Inaudible.)
>> The multilevel group and
(Inaudible.)
>> Your main point about stimulating advocacy and enabling a proactive way I think there's other suggestions we've made here and influence the decision making processes and
(Inaudible.) On that's informative okay, and I'm interested in
(Inaudible.)
>> It will take as much you want and also the fact sheet on your desk but I will give you what is going to be the amazing part of 2025 to
(Inaudible.)
>> To next host that was mentioned already, and I would like to welcome to the stage
>> Hey.
>> So would you like to tell what's coming next?
>> Thank you very much. Just I came to my first
(Inaudible.)
>> It was a fantastic event and a very, very interesting time I hosted the panel, but people actually talked to me about after, so I think it went well after the social event, which, I think, was also successful I believe. Sorry, the council Europe has a cofounder I believe since then
(Inaudible.)
>> Actually the data protection segment of the council at the unit we work at a specific convention
(Inaudible.) By the United States as well as member states and that will hopefully, come into force soon, and it will be one of the topics related to AI that will be
(Inaudible.)
>> We have the pleasure of hosting along with our country Luxembourg AI every intention, I think, of making this an annual event as you said annual countries
(Inaudible.)
>> Have the ability to make things happen usually they're not as quite as hierarchical and heavy as some others can be. I also have the best convention, which is another global instrument which in this case it's against cybercrime they will be having an event in March and focus heavily on AI, and then
(Inaudible.)
>> Protection convention. We talked a lot about data governance protecting people's privacy but also and, what, I hope to bring LinuxONE again facilitating the cross border data flows which has been a very big topic with the IGF I've seen it come up to do cooperation on this topic, so I just wanted I didn't want to take too much of your tomb. I think to have a essentially safe human rights on the balance regulations, so that we could be block things and not make life difficult for people, in fact, quite the opposite. The framework with AI is a risk assessment tool but AI which was very flexible solution system it's neutral when it comes to topics. It can be adopted, so I think there'll be another topic specifically in the risk assessment in it AI, and then the counsel of Europe has many, many areas of antidiscrimination, children's rights safety of children online is a constant topic for us, so I'll just wrap up and say I look forward to seeing you in May, so the process on the Strasbourg side and see you very soon.
>> The process of the upcoming conference issues and if you flip the card on your chair, you will find the direct QR code that leads you to the corporations on the 31st of December you still have time a very short paragraph what you will be should be brought up next year.
And then since it's early in the year we also to May, which is not, and we would very much coordinate with the global IGF process because we know the resources are limited. If we really need to streamline the preparations so please expect some changes this year. We will have a discussion with the organized team and also discuss with the community at our public planning meeting that is taking place and in January, beginning of February when we agree on what we want to do we will do. We need to be really efficient this year.
And the president of the Internet Society and
(Garbled.) Are
>> To work on those who are a little bit you know, almost all of the categories and look at the decade of change but since we are
(Inaudible.)
>> We thought it's a good idea and the idea basically comes from a 50 years of the internet, so we have those publications, and we only have the two copies here because they're now in Riyadh, so you will find acknowledgements and, of course, we'll send to you if you would like to.
>> This is part of the internet governance ecosystem. These national and regional IGFs, and we have been longstanding supporters, and I think it's really one of the very fruitful results of the Internet Government Forum is the robust local and regional dialogs that have grown out of the IGFs, so you mean really happy to be longstanding supporter of EuroDIG and also I just looked it up. We sponsored over 42 NRIs in 2023 alone, and so we're really committed to this model.
And it's really exciting when we have opportunities to work together on things and like you said, we're in the 50th year of the publication of the first RFCs, and, so it seemed like a good moment to look back and also to look ahead together about where we've come from what was the motivation of the early authors of R GDC and how that journey has progressed, and then how we continue to work together to defend the model of the internet that we all care about. And for the last several years the Internet Society has been doing some work on what are the core properties of the internet what makes it a globally secure and trustworthy internet for everyone. What are the properties that make it so, and then how can we evaluate policies in it light of those properties? And one of the ways we speak about that is just as if you were going to build a bridge somewhere, you would do an environmental impact assessment. You would evaluate the impact of that decision on the environment around you. We believe that governments and policymakers should have a similar approach when it comes to policymaking about the internet. If there's a public interest concern, which there are many, to pause and say, okay, if we're going to make a policy decision about that, what would the impact decision be or these core properties on the internet that we value, and so this project here allows us to both look back because those core properties are essential to how the internet is developed, and then evaluate how we work on those assessments going forward as policymaking honestly becomes ever more complex. Our world is more complex, the technologies is more complex. The public interests are really challenging, and we want to be a partner on that, and we think EuroDIG is a fantastic venue to have those kinds of discussions with stakeholders in an open way, and so, you know, we're really proud to have collaborated on this. We think this is a good moment, and I just think that EuroDIG is a tremendous partner, and I couldn't be happier to work with you.
>> Thank you very much, Sally and thank you for the ongoing support over the many years that we are collaborating.
If you visit this brochure on the website, we also considered this some sort of capacity building so in your industry and your company and your organization at your university, people would like to understand how the internet works and how we can protect the, then possibly this might be a source of inspiration. We on purpose try to keep it very short, so that it's not going to be too long so have a look and make up your voice.
We put in comparison to that ISOC text ordered ISOC that was drafted was the discussion that had been taking place over the years at EuroDIG, so you can see how the debate have been value aided and considered where consensus was and where no consensus was because this is part of our forums that sometimes stakeholders finish a session and agree not to agree.
>> That's right, that's right, but at least we do it in an open and inclusive way. We have those discussions and often that initial disagreement also opens doors to further conversations, so I think that's really valuable.
>> And I think this is what these forums are for and with this I think we are perfectly on time unless there are some other people, ray the gentleman over there who wanted to speak up earlier but if you are still up to, then no? It okay. Anyone else who would like to say a few words to finish that session? Okay. If this is not the case, then I wish you a very nice evening. I hope you have a good plan for tonight. And maybe we see each other on one of the events this week and thank you very much for coming and for participating.
(Applause.)