EU's New Budget Will Test its Commitment to Digital Democracy
The European Union faces a ‘stick or twist’ moment for its commitment to digital oversight.
The 27-country bloc is currently negotiating its next 7-year budget, or an estimated €2.1 trillion cash pile between 2028 and 2038 that will fund everything from national agricultural subsidies and military support for Ukraine to student exchange programs and academic-led research and development.
Among the funding priorities that still need to be ironed out is Europe’s stated ambitions of supporting projects that foster democratic resilience from Portugal to Poland at a time when trust in governments and democratic norms is at a 50 year-low across most Western countries.
At the top of the list are the EU’s stated policy objectives of making its online environment as safe as possible for citizens — either via the bloc’s digital rulebook or the wider promotion of Europe’s democratic values online.
Related Knowledge Center: Digital privacy and data security
If you’re online, you’re generating a constant stream of information about yourself — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes unwittingly — that is assembled and used to craft your online experience. And generate wealth for data brokers. Meanwhile, designers and managers of the digital infrastructure on which the world depends are engaged in a never-ending effort to thwart attempts, by both criminal enterprises and state actors, to exploit vulnerabilities in those systems.
Signalgate | State surveillance