Heading towards Europe 3.0: the challenges of the digital decade
“The secret of the Finns to being the happiest country in the world for years is based on three pillars: values, nature and technology,” Stefan Lindström, advisor for Digitalization and New Technologies at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reveals to a group of journalists in Helsinki. of Finland, considered the happiest nation in the world for the sixth consecutive year.
The Nordic country shares the values of the EU, to which it has belonged since 1995, but on the other side of its territory it also shares 1,300 kilometers of border with the country that threatens those values: Russia. In that 'tweezer' in which Finland finds itself, it seems that technology is the main ingredient in the recipe for its happiness, which some Finns rather reduce to “being satisfied with the life they have” (which is no small thing).
Finland, the latest member to join NATO with one of the most powerful armies in the Alliance, is the first country in the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) that measures the progress of the member countries of the European Union (EU) towards digitalisation (also known as digital transformation) through four key indicators: connectivity, human capital, digital technology integration and digital public services.
It is the mirror in which Europe 3.0 is seen, of which the European Parliament will be the guarantor of its development, but also of the protection of our, increasingly, online life.
Digitalization is one of the EU's priorities for this decade, which seeks to improve the quality of life of European citizens. It is about the integration of digital technologies in companies and in different sectors of society: transportation, energy, agri-food system, telecommunications, public services, health or education. “Digitalization has to be based on trust in institutions, on how they treat their citizens' data, on the consumer feeling protected: values are the most important thing,” defends Lindström.
If we return to the thesis that a digitalized society tends to be happier, we find that the European countries at the top of the DESI index are also at the top of the World Happiness Report (led by Finland): Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg.. Coincidence or not, Mikko Mattinen, director of the Finnish Population and Digital Data Services Agency – in charge of promoting digitalization in society and the availability of data – insists that technology improves the lives of citizens: “When “A government implements the things that are really practical for a society, basic needs are covered and, therefore, a society that is considered, in general, happy is achieved.”
93% of Finns benefit from the digital architecture of private and public services through the intuitive website suomi.fi, which registered 200 million transactions last year in a country of almost six million citizens. In the case of people less familiar with technology, such as the elderly, since 2017 Finland has had digital authorizations that grant virtual power to relatives or guardians of that person to represent them before the State and be able to carry out any online management on their behalf. a measure that was very useful during the pandemic.
“It is a practical Government that does things for you without having to give your data over and over again,” adds Niko Ruostetsaari, advisor to the Finnish Ministry of Finance.. Basically, any daily task can be done through a screen: from establishing a joint custody regime in a divorce, to carrying out all the procedures after the death of a family member quickly and easily.
Goal:2030
The EU's digital transformation strategy has a goal, the year 2030, with very clear objectives, including: promoting an inclusive, transparent and open digital environment, centered on human beings and based on fundamental rights; bridge the digital divide; ensure secure and accessible digital and data infrastructures; promote an EU digital regulatory framework to help businesses or ensure online participation in democratic life for all.
The long-distance race proposed by the EU is, however, becoming a sprint. The advances of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have reshaped our way of interacting with technology, and will have repercussions that we have not yet imagined.. The main characteristic of this new technology is its ability to learn and adapt, just as societies will have to do so that the new reality brings more advantages than threats.. And this is where European institutions play a key role in regulating its use.
One of the most recent examples, which has reached European institutions, is found in Almendralejo (Badajoz), where the dissemination of montages of nudes of minors created with AI triggered the debate on the need to put limits as soon as possible on this new technology.
“We citizens are going to discover more and more that the Internet is a world as real as the physical world, therefore we have to learn to behave. With prevention, but also with the ability to enjoy and take advantage of the enormous advantages we have in the physical world.. Now there are more crimes committed in the online world than in the physical world, and there are all kinds. We have to know how, without fear, to act against cybercrime. There are many risks and we have to eliminate them,” explains to this newspaper the Spanish MEP Javier Zarzalejos (EPP), rapporteur of a report approved last Wednesday in the European Parliament on Regulations to prevent and combat the sexual abuse of minors on the internet.
The text – which will enter the negotiation phase with the Council and the Commission – is based on a proposal from Brussels to force EU internet providers to evaluate the risks of their services in the dissemination of content of child sexual abuse or recruitment of minors, to adopt effective prevention measures and to report or eliminate content if necessary. “Services that use AI will have to evaluate these risks, and also those companies that offer AI tools susceptible to creating images of child sexual abuse,” explains Zarzalejos who, on the other hand, emphasizes that companies can also make good use of of this technology to keep the different internet services clean of this type of materials. “That is the double face of technology, it creates problems but solves others,” he points out.
Artificial Intelligence Law
MEP Ibán García del Blanco (PSOE) is one of the speakers of the Artificial Intelligence Law (which they hope to approve in the December plenary session), of which Europe is a global pioneer, as it was also the data protection law and intellectual property: “No one can anticipate the future, but I see more opportunities to improve the quality of life, well-being and even to build kinder societies through AI and, above all, the controls that are going to be established from a regulatory point of view. “There are certainly risks, what we have to do is approach them maturely, just as we do with any type of technological advance.”
The task of institutions in the face of these new challenges, points out García del Blanco, is to anticipate them and carry out “a massive task of digital literacy.”. That is, make society aware of the era they are going to enter and of the need to become familiar with new technologies “to prevent citizens from being terrified in case they are going to lose their job, due to the risks of cybercrime or because gaps are created between generations.”
In 2020, the pandemic highlighted the importance of technology in education, the business world, health and social interaction, but at the same time it revealed the digital gaps between Member States. To prevent Europe 3.0 from being two speeds, the European Parliament approved the Digital Europe Program in 2021, endowed with 7,588 million euros, aimed at bringing technology closer to companies, citizens and public administrations with the aim of implementing digital first and achieve a greener Union. “We are trying to avoid two-speed Europe at a digital level through the most powerful figure that the Union has to regulate, which is Parliament. It is the way to guarantee harmony in development,” emphasizes García del Blanco, who highlights the giant qualitative leap that Spain has made in recent years, placing it in number seven position in the DESI.. “And then there are curious cases like Estonia, a small country that even has a police force dedicated to the Metaverse,” the MEP reviews.
The EU thus seeks to reinforce its sovereignty and follow its own rules, not those of others.. “And if we want to transform ourselves digitally, it is not only for the citizens, but for our own competitiveness in the international geopolitical space,” he concludes.
“Our generation will forever be remembered in the history books as the first to go online, after billions of years being offline. And from now on humanity will always be online. That's great, but it also means we have a huge responsibility,” reflects Mikko Hyppönen, research director at the Finnish cybersecurity company WithSecure and one of the world's leading experts on the subject.
Private cybersecurity agencies and companies become essential in an increasingly digital world, in which criminal groups find new ways to attack or obtain economic benefits: from hijacking companies' data to blocking a hospital system.. But technological advances also turn citizens' personal devices into targets, and any device connected to the internet is vulnerable.. Here comes the so-called internet of things: an alarm system, a smart watch or a baby monitoring camera can be hacked. According to data from the European Parliament, it is estimated that the number of devices connected to the Internet of Things worldwide by 2024 will be 22.3 billion.
“The closest example to the connectivity revolution in which we are immersed is the electrical development that took place more than 150 years ago. Since then, our lifestyle is completely dependent on electricity, without it nothing works.. The question is whether our ancestors – who adopted electricity into their way of life – made the right decision, despite having made us completely dependent. And the answer is: of course. The advantages of the electric revolution are far superior, and that is exactly the same decision that we are making now with connectivity,” says Hyppönen.
The EU identifies the sectors most vulnerable to cyber attacks in transport, energy, healthcare, telecommunications and digital infrastructure, banks and financial markets, security, democratic processes, space and defense. To combat this type of attacks that compromise the national security of a state, the European Parliament updated the legislation in November 2022 to reinforce investments in the cybersecurity of essential services and critical infrastructures and approved stricter community laws such as the directive on security of networks and information systems (NIS2). In addition, it has the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, created in 2004 by Regulation approved by the European Parliament and the Council, which is responsible for guaranteeing security in the communications and services of the community administration and the citizens of the Union. .
“There are five major cybercriminal groups in the world. The most interesting thing about them is that they have their own brand, with a website and logos.. They are organized. The next thing about these attacks is that they will be carried out automatically with the help of Artificial Intelligence, there will no longer be humans behind them,” warns Hyppönen.
Most of these cybercriminal groups operate from Russia, according to data from WithSecure. It is one of the reasons why Finland holds the title of the most digitalized country in the EU; its own geography and history forces it to monitor its large Russian neighbor at all times.. “We have a great army and military service is mandatory in our country. But when I go to take the refresher course every few years, they don't give me a weapon, they give me a computer, with that I am much more effective in defending the country,” he analyzes.. The Nordic country will increase spending on cybersecurity by 30% in 2024 to combat cyber threats based on Artificial Intelligence after its Parliament suffered an attack in April, coinciding with its entry into NATO.
The EU estimates that the costs linked to cybercrime in the world reached 5.5 trillion euros in 2020. Cybersecurity companies will therefore become the new armies on the battlefield of the connectivity era and their employees will become the soldiers.
“Our companies will be in charge of national security. I've worked in this industry for 32 years and always thought my job was to insure computers, but now I know better.. My job is to guarantee national security. It is a great responsibility that we did not think about when we started in this field,” says the expert.