Interview of the Sponsor of SOGA EU : Axelle Lemaire

Interview of the Sponsor of SOGA EU : Axelle Lemaire

Interview of the Sponsor of SOGA EU : Axelle Lemaire

As a great honor for the team and our European community, Axelle Lemaire has agreed to become the Sponsor of the Social Good Accelerator EU in september 2020. Former French Secretary of State for Digital, at the origin of the law for a committed digital Republic, she is a fervent advocate of digital inclusion and technical solutions for the social and solidarity economy. No one could have better represent what we are all standing for.

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Why is it important for you to commit to a technological transition of Social Economy organizations and the valorisation of the alternative technical models resulting from it, at the European level?
As a European activist, and former Secretary of State for Digital and Innovation in the French government, I am convinced that Brussels must play a leading role in driving a European technological model centered on a fair, inclusive and responsible societal and environmental transition.

And from this perspective, new technologies are capable of the worst as well as the best. The startup financing model, which is based on the gamble of very rapid growth through the injection of private financial capital according to closed governance models, may tend to overshadow other alternative, more accessible models.

When only the search for maximum profitability counts, social inequalities are often reinforced and the ecological footprint worsened. It is important that the digital sector welcomes all models of economic and social development and that there is room for everyone, and not just for the glittering fundraisers!

To face up to these challenges, players in the field of solidarity and environmental protection, who are often deeply rooted in their local area, are taking on a role that is both critical and underestimated. In fact, Social Economy organizations are key players in preserving societal balance and the expected pivot of the economic system’s functioning. Everywhere, these organizations efficiently carry out indispensable educational, social and environmental missions. They also transmit basic skills to the most vulnerable groups throughout the country. They maintain social cohesion by mobilizing citizens, professionals and experts to create communities, defend democracy and the collective heritage. All this is achieved through constant innovation, at all levels and all geographical scales, for example by hybridizing economic models or creating new services or new processes to serve solidarity and environmental transition.

In this respect, technological transition could enable social economy to increase its capacity for action, and to do so in its own way. A number of initiatives – and models from the non-profit or limited-profit sector – deserve to be better known and deployed on a massive scale. But social economy organizations, which should be pushed to do better, are increasingly forced to do less: they find themselves in a “unthinkable” situation in terms of support for the digital transition of organizations, since neither institutional donors nor patrons are funding the skills development and support needed for these changes in methods of thinking, working and acting in the field to the level of the reality of the needs. It is time to help social economy organizations go to scale through digital technology.

Why did you agree to be a sponsor of SOGA EU?

The Social Good Accelerator is a young association that wants to contribute to bring this subject of the technological transition of the SSE to Brussels, to create a European community of action and sharing as well as bridges between the worlds of solidarity and technology. These are more than useful but very ambitious projects, led by a new generation of professionals in the social and solidarity economy and digital activists.

The cause is just, and I feel completely in line with SOGA’s founding vision. This type of initiative requires mobilizations of all kinds: federating the organizations concerned, recruiting experts and volunteers, raising funds, conducting research and bringing sectoral demands to fruition.

“I am convinced that Brussels must play a leading role in driving a European technological model centered on a fair, inclusive and responsible societal and environmental transition.”

Axelle Lemaire, former French Secretary of State for digital affairs, Sponsor of SOGA EU (2014-2017)

How will you concretely engage with our members?
Sponsor, it’s a nice role! I will bring a benevolent and protective look and support to the activities of the Social Good Accelerator.At my level, I am happy to be able to contribute to support the association through my experience, to make it known and to serve as a springboard. I can also be consulted on one of my fields of expertise and facilitate dialogue with a number of decision-makers, or support courageous positions when necessary.

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EU Digital Policies : Digital Society index, Digital Service Act and more

EU Digital Policies : Digital Society index, Digital Service Act and more

As every trimester, our EU Tech expert Arnaud Castaignet delivers his analysis on the last EU Tech data and policies. From the Digital part of the State of European Union Speech to the last editions of the European Digital Society Index, including the debates on Digital Service Act in Brussels, here is Arnaud’s sum up of what Social Good organisations must retain of the last EU tech news. 

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, presented on September, 16th to the European Parliament her vision in her first State of the European Union address. Since she got appointed, a strong focus has been made on the EU Green Deal. This speech was the opportunity to highlight the Commission’s other top priority: “Europe’s Digital Decade”. 

Tech and digital will have a great importance in the Next Generation EU fund and will be backed up by 20% investment in digital from it, meaning €150bn of the EU’s €750bn recovery fund will be spent on digital projects. Three focus areas have been identified: industrial data, AI and infrastructure.

Talking about industrial data (as opposed to consumer data) shows that the EC will focus on the development of a data economy, hoping to reap the benefits of the fact the amount of industrial data in the world will quadruple in the next five years. The EC is pushing forward with plans to develop common data spaces hosted on a new cloud platform, GaiaX, in energy and health sectors for instance, and is looking forward to support cooperation between start-ups, companies, SMEs, researchers. When it comes to consumer data, Von der Leyen considers that Europe “has been too slow and is now dependent on others”.

On AI, the President of the European Commission actually pushed new AI governance laws back. When she was elected last November, she promised to introduce AI legislation within the first hundred days of her presidency. During her speech, she mentioned that it would be proposed next year, with “a human-centric approach” to rules and regulation. It is worth noting that she also propose a secure European e-identity, that will allow citizens to use it anywhere in Europe to do anything from paying taxes to renting a bicycle, and will guarantee control over personal data, which may sound similar to principles of Estonia’s e-identity.

Infrastructure investments should also be a strong focus in the road to “Europe’s digital decade”. It is more than needed given that digital divide remains very important in Europe as highlighted in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), a composite index that summarises relevant indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of EU Member States in digital competitiveness. Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands scored the highest ratings in DESI 2020 and are among the global leaders in digitalisation. These countries are followed by Malta, Ireland and Estonia. Some other countries however still have a long way to go, in terms of infrastructure but also human capital and ability to use Internet services and technologies. Most of them are among the countries with the lowest GDP in the EU (Bulgaria, Romania and Greece, for instance) or strongly affected by Covid19 and its economic consequences (Italy). Therefore, there is a high risk that both digital divide and economic inequalities may deepen. It is worth noting that the biggest countries are not necessarily the most digitally advanced: France is only ranked 15th overall and even 18th when we focus on connectivity, according to DESI index.

The pandemic has exposed the stark reality of Europe’s digital divide. While countries and regions with good internet connections have been able to continue living life with at least a semblance of normality, others have not been so lucky. Of those living in rural areas, 40 per cent still lack access to fast broadband. The investment boost through NextGenerationEU will look to drive expansion to these areas. The investments will be focused on secure connectivity, on the expansion of 5G, 6G and fiber.

This State of the Union speech shows that digital and environmental transitions will be the key priorities of the EU in the coming years and that these transitions are deeply connected. Digitalisation is clearly considered as critical to achieve environmental transition, particularly in urbanism (smart cities), mobility and decarbonisation of the economy and the industry. Again, the main risk is that the same countries might be the winners. Denmark, for instance, is both among the leaders in digitalisation and one of the countries whose smart cities initiatives will help decrease the most carbon emissions. 

Meanwhile, in Brussels, the Digital Services Act Package is the most important text for the EU digital economy that will shake up discussions between the Commission and the Parliament until the end of the year. It is an ambitious arsenal to tackle both the dominance of the digital giants and their policies on moderation. It is being led by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market. In a recent interview with the newspaper Le Monde, he explains that the regulation of social networks “is intended to be dealt with at the European level”. Many of the measures are based on the French law on confidence in the digital economy (LCEN), which in France governs the same sector. The Digital Services Act also provides that the platforms can identify and locate Internet users posting under a pseudonym “if necessary”. In case of breach, the sites could be financially sanctioned or “be prohibited from accessing the internal market of the European Union”. For the platforms concerned, the calculations would be made according to a threshold of audience “yet to be determined”. The discourse is quite clear, however, and targets sites with “much larger audiences than traditional media, which gives them responsibilities similar to those of an editorial director or content editor”. Apple, Google and Facebook could be put on a “black list” established by the European Union (EU). As reported in the Financial Times, the EU institutions would be developing stricter rules to regulate the digital services market and impose new rules on the biggest players in the market, both in terms of business practices and data sharing and transparency on data collection. large companies to change their business practices. This would include forcing America’s mastodons to share their data and to be more transparent about how they collect it, according to specific criteria.
Discussed in Parliament in week 43, the own-initiative reports by Alex Agius Saliba (S&D) in the Internal Market Committee (Imco), Tiemo Wolken (S&D) for Legal Affairs (Juri) and Kris Peeters (EPP) for Civil Liberties (Libe) were adopted, almost without amendments.

For More Information

The Digital Economy and Society Index – DESI 2020

DESI 2020: Questions and Answers

Country performance in digital

Data Visualisation Tool

DESI 2020 methodology

Digital technologies – actions in response to coronavirus pandemic

Communication on Shaping Europe’s Digital Future