Democracy in peril: Commission’s Ethics Group stresses need and ways to deepen democracy in the face of novel risks

Today, the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE), an independent advisory body to the Commission, handed over its Opinion on Democracy in the Digital Age to Commission Vice-President Dubravka Šuica.

Requested by President von der Leyen, the Opinion will guide the Commission in its efforts to address challenges to democracy and to foster it.

Vice-President Šuica said:

“The EGE urges us to look beyond elections and reflect on democracy in a deeper way. We should enable and invite people to participate more actively in public deliberation and decision-making. The EGE’s Opinion encourages us all in our efforts to continue working on strengthening Europe’s democracies, in the challenging geopolitical and technological context of today.”

In its Opinion, the EGE recognises the importance of innovation and technology in supporting democracy. However, it also highlights the risks posed by current and emerging socio-technical arrangements, including the spread of false or manipulative information on public debate, elections, and society as a whole. The EGE examines different aspects of privacy and the shrinking space for individuals to act autonomously, focusing on surveillance and the discrimination it enables. The Opinion also raises concerns about technology corporations expanding into the public sector, lack of fair benefits for the public, increased power of commercial entities in setting agendas, and growing dependencies on them for essential public goods.

As these developments threaten the values that a democratic system aims to uphold, the EGE argues that strengthening democracy, as the form of government best suited to realise fundamental rights and core values, is an ethical necessity. The Opinion concludes with a set of recommendations which develop pathways for how this can, collectively and democratically, be further translated into reality. They pertain to:

• Public participation, civic education, and critical digital literacy to be promoted and supported – and digital citizenship to be sustained by measures for social inclusion;
• More coherent regulation to make digital practices serve people and communities – and technologies to be designed and regulated for democracy;
• Civil society organisations as well as media professionals to be better protected and empowered;
• A set of measures to be taken to ensure that publicly funded innovation benefits the public, that basic needs are safeguarded from market rationales, and that PPPs are designed to strengthen fundamental values;
• Democracy and democratic calls to be integrated into EU diplomacy for people and planet.

Background

The EGE is the independent multi-disciplinary body appointed by the President of the European Commission that advises on all aspects of Commission policies and legislation where ethical, societal and fundamental rights dimensions intersect with the development of science and new technologies.

The EGE was initially established in 1991 by President Jacques Delors and most recently relaunched by President von der Leyen in January 2022.

The Group brings together 15 leading thinkers from Europe and worldwide, from the fields of natural and social sciences and humanities, philosophy, ethics and law. In the past years, the EGE has provided advice on matters such as crisis management, artificial intelligence, the future of work, genome editing, agriculture, energy, synthetic biology, security and surveillance, and the role of values in policy making.

More information

EGE Opinion on the Democracy in the Digital Age

One-page Summary of the Opinion

European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE)

Press contact:

EC Spokesperson for Research, Science and Innovation