(Check against delivery)

Excellencies, Co-facilitators,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro*, Albania*, the Republic of Moldova, and Bosnia and Herzegovina*, as well as Andorra, Monaco and San Marino align themselves with this statement.

The Global Digital Compact has enormous potential to reaffirm and establish general goals and principles for digital cooperation; to promote a human-centric and human rights-based approach to the digital transition; to address gaping digital divides among regions, countries, and communities; to fast-track progress towards the SDGs; and in the process to improve coordination of the digital agenda in the UN system itself by ensuring complementarity between the GDC and existing UN processes and fora, most notably the World Summit on the Information Society+20.

The European Union is therefore fully committed to participate constructively with everyone in this room in the creation of an ambitious GDC.

In the interest of time, I will outline here 7 key priorities for the EU.

1. The Compact should articulate clearly and unequivocally a human-rights based and human-centric vision for harnessing digital technologies that serve and benefit all individuals. As guided by Digital Humanism, human rights and human dignity must be promoted, protected, and fulfilled online, just as they must be offline. We support the proposed OHCHR human rights advisory mechanisms on technology issues, and we advocate for effective governance frameworks that clearly define responsibilities for online platforms and search engines.
2. The Compact should emphasize the importance of global, secure, and trusted connectivity and capacity building as critical measures to bridge the digital divides, including the gender digital divide. It must advocate for universal digital inclusion, by championing access to digital technologies and development of media, information, and digital skills, as well as increased investments in digital infrastructure. It should commit to enhancing resilient digital public infrastructures, digital commons, and digital public goods, and ensure that data is governed for the benefit of all.
3. The Compact should leverage the digital dividends for sustainable development, in particular to improve access to and quality of education and health services. We must strive towards stronger global cooperation to ensure a socially just and sustainable digital and green twin transition. The Compact should consider the potential positive impact of digital technologies on the climate and our environment, and promote “sustainability by design” of digital infrastructure. It is also an opportunity to advance gender equality, by ensuring equal opportunities for women and girls to access, use and create technology.
4. Protection against technology-enabled harm is also crucial. The Compact should focus on global efforts to make new technologies a tool for equality, non-discrimination, and inclusion of people in vulnerable situations. It should particularly emphasize the protection of children and young people from online harm.
5. With regards to Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies, the Compact should promote international cooperation based on trust, transparency, and accountability, in line with UNESCO Recommendations and OECD Principles. The Compact should advocate for a risk-based, human rights-based approach to AI's lifecycle, promoting balanced regulations that foster innovation and sustainable development, as exemplified by the new EU AI Act. Moreover, the Compact must tackle AI's challenges, such as privacy violations, perpetuation of racial, ethnic, gender, and other discrimination and biases, and threats to information integrity and democracy, by fostering collaboration with regional and national regulators and helping the UN to promote harmonised, accountable, and transparent approaches to AI and data regulation. As such, we commend the High-Level Advisory Body on AI for their significant effort in issuing the interim report.
6. The Compact should advocate for an internet that is open, accessible, neutral, free, inclusive, global, interoperable, reliable, secure, privacy-protective and environmentally sustainable, in line with the Declaration for the Future of the Internet. The Compact should endorse the multistakeholder Internet Governance Forum as the key global platform for internet governance.
7. Finally, the Compact should demonstrate the value of the UN in convening multiple stakeholders to discuss digital governance and in fostering cooperation among public authorities, academia, media, the technical community, and civil society.

Thank you.