Assembly of European Regions – AER Bureau meeting

Bodø, 22 June 2016

Speech by Andreas Kiefer, Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

[Introduction]

Around 45% of the world population has internet connection today. In 1995, it was less than 1%. The number of internet users – meaning individuals who can access the Internet at home – worldwide exceeds 3.2 billion and this number is increasing as we speak. The figures are even more impressive at the European scale; 77.6 % of Europeans use internet from home computers or mobile devices. It is clear that the changes new technologies bring into the social, economic and political dimensions of our lives cannot be ignored by any institution.

From a political point of view, the positive sides of the use of information and communications technologies are immense. The Internet has an invigorating effect on democracies because

•        it creates an entirely new means of information sharing and awareness-raising;

•        it enhances citizen participation by facilitating a sense of co-decision and placing individuals at the centre of the public arena;

•        it helps holding politicians accountable and rendering governments more transparent at all levels;

•        it gives space for innovation through a free flow of ideas.

As a consequence, public authorities and politicians have to adapt to a new reality, a reality of social networks and online collaboration complementary to the “classical” platforms of representative democracy. New forms of citizen engagement and participation are an opportunity for democracy, not a threat.

 

[Challenges]

Yet, the rapid development of ICTs has also a darker side. If badly managed, it can lead to the abuse of personal data, the growth of cyberterrorism and the wide spreading of hate speech. The father of a youngster killed in the Paris terrorist attacks of November 2015 is suing the social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google) because they facilitated IS dissemination of its ideology.

All these threats to human rights and the rule of law are actively fought against at the CoE through different means including the Youth campaign for human rights online “No Hate Speech Movement”.

On a different front, the restriction of the individual right to access internet or to freedom of expression online through excessive censorship constitute a problem in several European states that the CoE denounces and discusses with the authorities of the states concerned. The SG of the CoE is committed to work with states to safeguard freedom of expression, including by preparing a set of common standards on the blocking and filtering of Internet sites and codifying, for the first time, international standards.

Decreasing voter turnout at elections Europe-wide shows that we need new, transparent, more inclusive and easily accessible tools to support elections. This was the topic of a recent conference of Electoral Management Bodies organised by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission in Bucharest, on 14-15 April 2016, to which the Congress contributed with a report about our experiences in observing local and regional elections

The Secretary General of the CoE notes in his third annual report on the state of democracy in Europe that the situation of local and regional democracy and government has generally improved. Yet, there is a disconnection many individuals feel towards their political systems and their political representatives.

[Council of Europe solutions to these challenges]

What is the CoE response to these challenges?

We work with a variety of instruments and on many different fronts. Let me mention a few:

•        Work on e-governance

•        World Forum for Democracy

•        Education for democratic citizenship and human rights and, last but not least,

•        the work of the Congress on e-democracy.

[Work on e-governance]

The Council of Europe, as the guardian of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, addresses both the positive and negative aspects of technological evolution through developing legal standards to protect the fundamental values it represents, in line with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Council of Europe developed a number of legally-binding treaties addressing human rights threats online, including to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation , to combat cybercrime with the Cybercrime Convention (2001) and the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism (2005)  and to protect personal data with a pioneering Treaty open for signature as early as in 1981 .

The Committee of Ministers – the Council of Europe’s statutory decision-making body – issued a series of recommendations on e-democracy in order to harness its benefits and control its potential risks. The 2009 recommendation developed by the Ad hoc Committee on e-democracy (CAHDE, 2006-2008) was the first international legal instrument to set standards in the field of e-democracy. It is accompanied by an explanatory memorandum and a number of practical tools on how to combine modern ICT tools and democratic requirements.

The European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) has been analysing the use of electronic tools for democracy and in citizen participation through two consecutive workshops in April and May 2015. A country by country analysis of the current state of use of e-tools in the member states of the Council of Europe is available online.

The Parliamentary Assembly, in its 2009 resolution on “e-democracy” , encouraged the introduction of legal standards for using e-tools in political processes.

The European Court of Human Rights contributes to standard-setting with its judgements on legal disputes arising from technological evolution, and on “grey areas” concerning the freedom of expression and hate speech online.

As regards the latest developments, the Committee of Ministers adopted on 30 March 2016 its strategy for internet governance for the period 2016-19, which aims to tackle the challenges to human rights, democracy and the rule of law in the rapidly evolving online environment. The strategy contains actions in several fields relevant to internet governance, such as digital citizenship, elections, and information literacy.

If we step over the minimalist perspective of e-democracy, which is the support of “classical” representative democracy by the information and communication technologies, e-democracy can mean the development and use of completely new forms of participation, as the World Forum for Democracy has demonstrated.

 

[World Forum for Democracy]

The Council of Europe contributes to identifying innovative forms of participation via a unique platform, the World Forum for Democracy, which brings together political decision-makers from national, regional and local parliaments/assemblies and executive bodies, academics and activists to debate solutions to key challenges for democracies worldwide. Tackled from different angles, E-Democracy has been present in every edition of the WFD. For example:

In 2014, the Forum analysed ways of revitalising democracy focusing on youth. They are the most sensitive to technological innovation and yet often excluded from political processes. The Forum addressed the disenchantment of youngsters with political representation and scepticism regarding policy decisions. To address this challenge, the Forum analysed ways of gearing politics and democratic practice to young people’s current methods of communication and mobilisation, in particular social media, and tried to identify tools (apart from voting) that can encourage youth participation and enhance democratic vitality. As a result, five main recommendations for young people to increase their impact on political decision-making have been formulated:

• young people should be able to change the system from within (being part of it) by joining a political party, introducing youth quota in lists of political candidates for elections, and lowering the voting age;
• there should be binding mechanisms in democracies to integrate the demands of social movements in political decision-making;
• representative and participatory structures should be combined by introducing e.g. participatory budgeting, online fora, youth councils, crowdsourcing, citizen juries, federal policy conferences, online and face-to-face deliberation, or participation commissions;
• the internet should be exploited for a renewal of democracy: social and political structures need to adapt to the digital world employing innovative forms of information, communication and transactions as used by the generation of digital natives;
• politicians need to act upon the demands of youth.

In the framework of the 2015 Forum, which had the theme “Freedom vs control: For a democratic response”, a collaborative workshop (“democracy hackathon”) took place. Around 30 actors from different fields, among them elected representatives, gathered to think of the concrete ways to support the development of transparent, participative and collaborative democracy. They all shared the conviction that upgrading democracy for the 21st century is both a challenge and a requirement. In this spirit, they decided to continue working together to create a democracy incubator that will help connect democratic projects, make them available for cities and help them reach out to the public.

[Education for democratic citizenship]

One of the main purposes of education is to prepare individuals for life as active citizens in democratic societies. Appropriate educational input and practices can boost democratic engagement and can be used to counter prejudice and intolerance towards other national, ethnic and religious groups, and to reduce support for violent extremism in the name of religion (especially when that education is delivered in collaboration with local partners and community organisations). Democratic citizenship and human rights education will eventually reverse the current declines in voter turnout and political trust. The CoE is a major actor at the European level in this field, as reiterated by the Ministers of Education of the 47 member States at the recent Standing Conference of Ministers responsible for Education held in Brussels in April.

[Congress work on e-democracy as a means to re-invent democracy]

While Council of Europe activities, in general, follow an intergovernmental approach, it is the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities which examines the local and regional dimensions of e-democracy and the advantages and challenges of information technology for public authorities. In doing so, the Congress has issued several reports and recommendations on e-governance issues, since it had started working on this topic in 2008.

As regards the regional level, the Congress has been focusing on the potential of ICT for improving public consultation mechanisms, and increasing the efficiency and transparency of service delivery and management– mainly for the benefit of other institutions (schools, hospitals, etc.) in the case of regions and through them for the benefit of citizens. While local authorities have a great potential in introducing ICT tools on account of their proximity to the citizens, regions too can be actors in this field.

•        Example 1: The Region of Southern Denmark has introduced the “Openness Award” that is presented every year to a department, a social services programme or a hospital that has made an extra effort to practice openness, dialogue and citizen involvement. Moreover, all hospitals in the region have implemented telemedicine services and are connected through an information system at the regional level.

•        Example 2: French regions greatly contributed to the success of the citizen participation initiative called “World Wide Views”. This project organises debates at different points of the world to discuss the same policy related questions on the same day. In line with the COP21 summit in Paris in 2015, World Wide Views launched the largest ever global citizen consultation on climate and energy which involved 10 000 representatively selected citizens from 76 countries participating in 97 debates. One of the main partners of this initiative were the French regions. 14 regions organised and co-ordinated 12 citizen consultations, and provided logistical and financial support. In 2013, the citizen consultation organised as part of the national debate on energy transition had already gathered 1 115 citizens in 14 regions. This citizen mobilisation had led to the submission of 30 proposals to the Government for the bill on the energy transition.

Another topic we tackled was the digital divide as a new possible form of inequality. To give a simple example, broadband internet at home varies from 95% in some Dutch regions to only 26% in some rural parts of Bulgaria. In a 2009 recommendation on “the e-inclusion of regions” , the Congress called on members States to frame coherent and effective e-inclusion policies and legislation at national and European level, linking in with existing or yet to be established digital local/regional agendas”. Today regions actively contribute to decreasing the digital divide and develop themselves digital agendas.

•        Example 1: a digital agenda has been developed in 2013 by the region of Brittany in France, in order to facilitate access to technology for all. To this end, the Regional Council took actions for distributing fibre optic infrastructure, developing innovative e-services and supporting research on innovative uses.

•        Example 2: the European Regions Network for the Application of Communications Technology (ERNACT) is a European network (funded by the European Commission) operating in the field of the digital agenda. ERNACT has so far mobilised 130 regions in 26 transnational co-operation projects, for a total budget of around €50 million.

A third aspect of special relevance for local and regional authorities is the development of e-voting – which may change the modalities of participating in elections –, as well as the technical support of elections using new technologies. In its recommendation on “Equal access to local and regional elections” , the Congress calls on member States to “stimulate the creation of secure alternative forms of access to the polls such as postal, proxy voting or secure e-voting systems”.

Last but not least, the use of ICT is of special importance for European regions co-operating across borders, in terms of a more efficient use of their interrelated potentialities and resources. Transfrontier co-operation is indeed a very relevant dimension for the work of the Congress, as out of the 362 regions registered in the 47 Council of Europe members more than 140 are cross-border regions . The development and provision of cross-border public services online can give new dynamic to co-operation. Although a series of pilot cross-border applications had already been developed (e.g. E-CODEX between legal authorities, E-HEALTH between hospitals), these are rather rarely used due to legal, organisational, etc. barriers that prevent an effective implementation. While e-solutions for cross-border co-operation are a relatively new area to analyse for the Congress, in a 2013 we took a first step towards examining the legal and administrative challenges cross-border regions face. The Congress has been supporting the importance of transfrontier co-operation for the “European project” at different international platforms and conferences.

All relevant Congress reference texts can be found online in the compendium on e-democracy and e-governance, a few copies of which are available in this room. I recently addressed the issue from the point of view of local authorities during the Central and Eastern European e|Dem and e|Gov Days 2016 organised on 12-13 May in Budapest, under the main theme “Multi-Level (e)Governance: Is ICT a means to enhance transparency and democracy?” .

[To sum up]

E-democracy and e-governance are on the agenda of both the Council of Europe and its Congress. We are working towards encouraging public authorities to use the potential of ICT for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of their democratic mechanisms while, at the same time, being aware of the security and human rights risks brought along with the rapid evolution of technologies.

However, e-democracy only proves effective when there is a political will to fulfill the demands of the citizens in this direction and when there is openness to embrace new technologies. Participatory budgets, collaborative platforms for crowdsourced policies or citizens’ assemblies are being experimented all over the world in order to improve democratic processes. But many politicians remain sceptical about these democratic innovations and do not always have the incentive or know-how to engage in open democracy.

[Action proposed to Regions]

Surveys also show that citizens are mostly using internet for fun and are more reluctant when it comes to e-government services. There is a need to awaken the interest of citizens towards using new technologies and to highlight the advantages they can bring from the point of view of citizen participation and political changes.

Regions can react to these challenges and complement the actions of local authorities at sub-national level by:

•        providing and improving facilities to ensure universal internet access at the “right speed”;

•        organising digital trainings for institutional actors in order to improve computer literacy and incite a critical approach on processing information available on the internet;

•        informing the public on the opportunities to participate in decision-making processes, with special attention to vulnerable groups;

•        adopting a sustainable approach to the information society (e.g. digital agendas);

•        supporting online consultation mechanisms as complementary to more traditional ways of citizen participation.

[Action to take at the international level]

European assemblies of regions, such as the AER and institutions like the Congress, need to take up the role of a knowledge pool for regions, through which they can get the necessary information on the benefits of e-democracy for the regions and the European standards on e-governance which incorporate the values of human rights, democracy and rule of law. We need to serve as a political platform for the discussion on the relevance of e-democracy to the regions, as well as to cross-border co-operation.

In order to build synergies between our related activities instead of duplicating, we shall maintain close co-operation between our institutions (on the first place through our common members / regions). We shall be sharing and jointly developing our expertise in the field of e-democracy. We have a framework for that in hand: the Co-operation Agreement and an Action Plan we adopted in 2014.

I am very pleased to see the draft political declaration “(R)e-inventing Democracy – a regional approach” you are going to adopt today. This declaration opens an important issue for co-operation and I would like to invite you to co-operate with the Congress in contributing ‎to the Council of Europe Internet Governance Strategy 2016-2019: "Democracy, human rights and the rule of law in the digital world". There will be meetings with member states governments and their representatives in which the Congress will participate and we are happy to take your ideas and contributions on board.

Lastly, as I mentioned in earlier occasions, we shall co-ordinate our position when contributing to the intergovernmental work of the Council of Europe, in particular in the European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) which has been actively working on e-governance issues, in order to push forward our common agenda. The AER is invited to participate in these works and I hope that your priorities and resources will allow for a more regular and active participation in the future.