The alchemist
VIP
EU plans digital ID wallet for bloc's post-pandemic life
The European Union has unveiled plans for a digital ID wallet that residents could use to access services across the 27-nation bloc.
apnews.com
EU (+EEA) related:
- Harnessing digitalization for structural flexibility
- More health data spaces, bring the data together consistent with data protection laws
- a) More investment. Lack of investment has stifled growth in the potential for increased connectivity, production of more digitalized industry, public services, skilled people, technical universities, and growing start-ups
- b) Investment in super-computing, AI, cybersecurity, etc
-Fix the crippling scaling problem that comes with the different rule-setting in different countries, same rules and markets for all countries should fix this
-Growing geopolitical multi-polarity caused by the technological supremacy race between the US and China risks the creation of global technology split and tech-nationalism
-Amidst the ongoing disruption in global supply-chains of national security concerns, Europe's objective is to stay competitive in the strategic value chains of the future, such as electric batteries, renewable energy equipment, hydrogen fuel technology
- a) For big-tech, the pandemic is a shock, but unlike the rest, a positive shock. While all other firms slowed down, tech firms sped up investments and acquisitions. Big tech is the market.
- b) This means we need an anti-trust policy shift to face unprecedented corporate monopoly power. It is also clear that to regulate the tech giants, there is a need for a new digital taxation system, in which large companies pay taxes, where they create profits without resorting to tax havens
-Today, Europe is seen as a regulatory superpower. This needs to change. The EU needs to remain relevant as a global economic power through its technological re-innovation, rather than only regulation
-And to be able to capture and share the economic value produced by digitization, we need a coordinated project of a new industrial strategy at the European level with a very ambitious and coordinated investment program
-Developing a Europe-wide data space with new governance model, such as a European data trust. An example is turning municipal data into a public good co-owned by all citizens and developing decentralized privacy-enhancing data infrastructures and redefining the smart city to serve its people
-Ease on the protectionism fueled by the skepticism of globalization, motivated by the US-China relations and the geopolitical stress evolved from it. Too much protectionism is not consumer-centered
-If some firms provide high-quality products and efficient services, then they should be allowed without constraints to operate in the European market no matter if they are coming from China or the US. Of course, when you are talking about security issues, security standards should be high, and we should not have any discount there for any reason
-Thus, following a market-efficiency approach is best. But what we should do is to provide rules so that this value is redistributed in a better way towards local actors and the European ecosystem
-Data is of particular importance and creates value because it includes vital information, which firms through algorithmic processing translate into units, an essential factor to improve the efficiency of their services. So having access to this information can lead to better ideas for digital applications, can lead to attraction of talent, attraction of financing, and eventually can lead to market expansion and firm growth
-Given that digital ecosystem and, in particular, big platform ecosystems seem to be markets with great information asymmetries, a key objective should be to design a regulatory framework that transmits such vital information across a digital ecosystem and gives equal opportunities to European firms to improve their efficiency and scale up
-That can lead to a more diverse supply-chain in the digital sector. It can also provide some self-efficiency. And I would say this is the approach the digital sovereignty is the ability to control the information, provided by the European market in the digital ecosystem, to control it and to redistribute it in a way that provides more benefits to European actors
-So we can think of ways on how we can redistribute this information, but for sure, we need regulation for this that takes into account the technical compatibilities needed for that information sharing, that also allows the continuity of data setting
-There is some asymmetry, many of the cases have to do with new markets which authorities have limited knowledge. Information sharing can allow authorities to get a better understanding of how markets work and make less mistakes in the process of evaluating competitive strategies
-Now, if we have such a regulatory framework of transparency and information sharing, competition can work more effectively. Industrial policy, investment coordinated strategies can work the best when we have competitive markets with clear transparent rules. When we have trust in online ecosystems with strong privacy rights
