A Vision for a Shared Digital Europe

We published the Vision for a Shared Digital Europe in 2019, a year before launching Open Future. We return to this proposal as we continue to analyse European digital policies. This proposal was developed together with our partners from the Commons Network and with input from key civil society experts.  

We designed a policy frame that can guide policymakers and civil society organisations involved with digital policymaking in the direction of a more equitable and democratic digital environment. It describes a digital space where basic liberties and rights are protected, where strong public institutions function in the public interest, and where people have a say in how their digital environment functions.

This policy frame is based on four key principles: Enabling Self-Determination, Cultivating the Commons, Decentralising Infrastructure and Empowering Public Institutions. These principles, if enacted, will contribute to creating a European digital space that embodies a set of fundamental values: strong public institutions, democratic governance, sovereignty of communities and people, diversity of cultures, and equality and justice. A space that is common to all of us, but at the same time diverse and decentralised.

The report “Vision for a Shared Digital Europe” was jointly authored by Paul Keller (then Kennisland), Alek Tarkowski (then Centrum Cyfrowe) and Sophie Bloemen (Commons Network). The core of this frame was developed during a stakeholder workshop in October 2018 that brought together over twenty civil society experts, representing a broad range of perspectives and stakes from across the European Union (see here the full list of contributors). 

The work on the Vision for a Shared Digital Europe was funded through a grant from the Information programme of the Open Society Foundations to Kennisland.