Roundtable on Sustainability, Governance and Regulation of the Digital Transformation: Is the EU a Reference Model for the Global South?

Résumé En

This roundtable explores the role the EU could play at the Global level considering the sustainability, governance and regulation of the digital transformation. As digitalization harbours opportunities and challenges for democracy and for the governance of technological trajectories, it will discuss whether and how normative diffusion could take place, with European responses being taken up in other countries, especially from the Global South, and to what extent and under which conditions such responses could serve as models of reference. To this end, the roundtable will feature a discussion among colleagues from both EU and Emerging Powers, participating to the European project PRODIGEES (Promoting Research on Digitalisation in Emerging Powers and Europe towards Sustainable Development), aiming at fostering international collaboration and sharing of knowledge on (global) governance and the conditions to shape digitalisation towards the Sustainable Development Goals in the 2030 Agenda.The discussion will address various forms of regulation and governance of digital data and economic processes by democratic institutions, investigating issues such as: transparency and accountability rules such as those laid down in ‘open government partnerships’; citizens participation and engagement in political processes, as permitted by digital forms of communication; big data, raising concerns about social polarization, populism, and the fragmentation of the public sphere; platforms and data economies, considering disruptions of old business models and novel, asymmetric power relationships; and regulatory responses provided in Europe aiming at protecting fundamental rights, enabling a digital single market, and counteracting digital power asymmetries.