Digitalizacija in digitalne pravice
In light of a changing geopolitical landscape, we need to double down on efforts with regards to digital autonomy and protection of citizens' digital rights.
The EU Digital Decade report includes the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) according to which only 47% of Slovenian citizens have above average digital literacy (EU average: 56%). We are lacking ICT experts (3.8% of employment compared to the EU average of 4.8% and leading Sweden with 9%). Our companies are trailing in digital technology uptake (19th place) and while in Finland around 85% of the population, including 72% of elderly, use online government services, in Slovenia, it is 52% and 38% respectively. Slovenia ranks low on most eCommerce categories and is trailing with regards to ICT security.
In light of a changing geopolitical landscape, we also need to double down on our efforts with regards to digital autonomy and the protection of citizens' digital rights - domains where European cooperation is a must, but where Slovenia can also build competences and business opportunities. In the economy, a mantra often used is “software is eating the world”, meaning that the digitalisation replaces traditional technologies (for example analog and digital television). We are witnessing how online platforms disrupt housing and other sectors. Artificial intelligence will do the same and our legislation should not trail market innovations to the detriment of Slovenian citizens.
The programme of Volt Slovenia for digitalisation therefore centers around the following ideas:
Public Administration
Simplify forms and administrative procedures by making all citizen-facing processes available online with a clear, accessible and harmonised visual identity and step-by-step instructions.
Ensure that all government offices have a helpdesk (speaking Slovenian/English) to aid citizens completing procedures online with a specific focus on the elderly population.
Create a system like France-Connect that allows citizens to identify with a single login at different institutions (eg use tax office login for health insurance) and push for European interoperability and an EU e-ID system based on Estonia’s e-ID.
Implement parts of Estonia's e-Government initiatives including a common platform to securely connect government databases, the possibilities for online voting and paperless governance.
Public Procurement
Follow the idea of "public money, public code" and favour Floss (open-source) software similar to the Brazilian law that gave preferences to free software and created a strong ICT industry.
Make all public procurement tenders are publicly accessibly and bi-lingual to increase accessibility for European suppliers and transparency with regards to competitive pricing and public spending.
Push for openness and harmonisation on EU level. Facilitate Slovenia's industry to favour open standards, open interfaces and open source to bridge entry barriers created by national borders, legislation and closed ecosystems.
Introduce minimum quotas for Slovenian or European suppliers in public ICT procurement similar to the french cultural exception for music. For mission critical solutions, only Slovenian and European solutions should be considered.
Cybersecurity
Ensure cybersecurity regulation from EU level is adopted without adding additional national burdens, demand the same from other EU member states and favour technological means for security over bureaucratic measures.
Digital rights
Make high-speed internet access a basic public service and favour 5G virtualized RAN over hardware-based infrastructure (so that 5G->6G is only a software update). Adopt Finland's model for frequency sharing, that allows leasing of unused frequency bands from primary licence holders.
Launch an EU initiative to define ownership rights of personal data. Rights to physical property exist (my house, my car, my dog). We want to develop property and access rights for digital personal data (my DNA sequence, my health records, etc).
Extend the initiative to digital property rights to digital works and their usage as training data for AI models and monetisation without consent of the creator.
Introduce collective actions for data leaks that compromise personal data. The security of systems and the protection of personal data will only become a priority when the loss of data or its public disclosure becomes a cost factor for businesses.
Advocate for a common European copyright solution that ensures that Article 13 on content upload filters of the Copyright Directive includes safeguards for user privacy, freedom of expression and other fundamental rights before any upload is judged, blocked or removed.
Consumer protection
Strengthen consumer protection for scams and online frauds considering maturing AI technologies (voice/facial imitation) by making financial institutions liable for executing payments without due diligence and flagging of suspicious transactions.
Define consumer rights for software-dependent products (e.g. smartphones) including obligation to maintain a software for 5-10 years, functioning without internet, refusal of data transfers to vendor/third parties, freedom to modify/repair/jailbreak devices.
Introduce the right to interact with a human representative for "Core Platform Services" defined in the Digital Markets Act within a reasonable time (eg 48h) following Art. 22 of the GDPR to avoid AI based decision without possibility of recourse.
Ensure our right to privacy by banning public and private facial recognition and tracking and comparable software in public spaces. This includes on smartphones and private devices, which can already today identify any person in a matter of seconds.
Artificial intelligence
Push a public and openly accessible European LLM (large language model) for European research and enterprises. For Slovenian companies to compete with global actors developing the AI models like ChatGPT, Claude or Bard, we must pool resources across Europe.
Introduce legislation that prohibits AI being used against general interest including over-consumption of content/addiction (especially for minors), individualised pricing based on usage-patterns, unsafe work conditions and false comments or reviews.