Digital technology, (continuing) livelihoods and the 2023 elections

Geopolitical playing field
Another aspect of security of livelihood has not yet been so explicitly included in the campaign; the ‘security of being', or rather survival of our Western way of life. The Russian attack on Ukraine, the tension in the Middle East as a result of the incursions from the Gaza Strip into Israel and the reaction to it, the restrictions on trade in technology and necessary raw materials between the US, China and Europe in which Dutch companies are becoming embroiled, they all point to geopolitical changes impacting our freedom. Our values and norms, democratic and economic systems, and thus our operating model, are under pressure. We need to look for alternative technologies and suppliers that make us less vulnerable on the geopolitical terrain. This is the second of our priorities. 

The enormous size of a few strategic technology suppliers, their focus on shareholder value, the related unwillingness to constrain the capabilities of their increasingly powerful technology themselves, coupled with the dependence on these parties and their technology that our members are also experiencing, is another side of the observation that the world as we know it is changing dramatically. Against this, in my view, we can only do something on a European scale; in this respect, it is a pity that most political parties pay very little attention to this European perspective.

In the world of digital technology, there is another side to European cooperation. In recent years, many new regulations have been developed in the EU precisely to give European norms and values some renewed attention, even to protect them, in the context of digital technology and geopolitical developments. There is a focus on improving markets and competition, limiting dependencies on other economic blocs and (cyber-)security. Implementing these laws is going to take a lot of time and coordination, both for individual companies and organisations, and for our association. To make this as efficient as possible, we call on politicians to set as few new rules as possible, to align as much as possible with European regulations, to strengthen cooperation between regulators so that they deal with interpreting and applying the rules in a similar way, and to provide clear guidelines for companies and organisations on what they need to do to act in accordance with the laws. For example in the area of applying AI. With all the opportunities this technology presents in addressing climate, healthcare, education, etc. challenges, as well as the ethics and safety challenges that come with it, we will need to know quickly what the frameworks are within which AI can be applied. Only by tackling the implementation of regulations efficiently will we prevent the high level of digitalisation of organisations in the Netherlands from becoming an inhibiting lead. And ensure that scarce knowledge is used optimally. We have also included this approach to market and regulatory implementation in our priorities.