Riga, 8 December 2020 - Today Latvia is signing the European Union (EU) Member States' joint Berlin Declaration on value-based digital transformation during the German Presidency of the EU Council. The declaration will boost the competitiveness of EU Member States and provide for new principles in the digital sphere that will strengthen EU values and contribute more to Europe's overall digital infrastructure.
At the high-level conference, Latvia will sign together with other EU Member States the declaration “Berlin Declaration at the Ministerial Meeting on Value-Based Digital Transformation during the German Presidency of the Council of the EU on 8 December 2020”. The declaration provides for the promotion of European common values through the principles of the digital sphere, so as to strengthen digital participation and digital inclusion in society.
Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Artur Toms Plešs: “The Berlin Declaration is an important commitment by the Member States to develop digitisation over the next Digital decade and Latvia highly appreciates the work of the German Presidency in drawing up the Berlin Declaration. Digital transformation opens up new opportunities and new forms of participatory and societal processes. . Digital technologies, on the other hand, offer innovative ways to address societal challenges and make public authorities more efficient, so that these new opportunities need to be fully exploited. The signed declaration provides an important basis for the further success of the implementation of European Union and Latvian digitisation policy actions I. It is particularly important to ensure social participation and digital integration in order to build a digital world and to ensure mutual trust between society and public administration. . It is an essential and necessary part of a value-based digital transformation that will be adopted and based on which both the Latvian and European Union digital society and the overall digital infrastructure will be developed."
The declaration aims to respect and implement the following values: respect for and justification of fundamental rights and democratic values; social participation and digital integration; opportunity and digital competence; trust and security in the interaction of the digital government; human-oriented systems and innovative technologies in the public sector; and a sustainable and sustainable digital society. When signing the declaration, Member States undertake to implement the aspects referred to in the declaration by the end of 2024 m.
In accordance with these principles, countries that sign the declaration undertake to act and, based on the experience of the Tallinn Declaration *, to call on the Commission and other EU institutions to provide support to implement and monitor progress towards the objectives defined in the declaration. . The policy areas set out in the declaration will be applied in such a way that they can be implemented in each country and in the context of digital public services.
The principles and tasks contained in the declaration are in line with the action lines in the draft Digital Transformation Guidelines for 2021-2027. **
The signing of declarations takes place online under the German Presidency. .
* Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment at the Ministerial Meeting during Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU on 6 October 2017 https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=47559
Information:
Public Relations Department
Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development
Tel. .20200305; 67026533,
e-mail: prese@varam.gov.lv