EU Statement – UN General Assembly: WSIS+20 Review

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Excellencies, dear colleagues,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*,[1]Montenegro*, Serbia*, Albania*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina* and Georgia, as well as Monaco, align themselves with this statement.

I would like to begin by thanking the co-facilitators and the secretariat for their excellent work on the zero draft which reflects the many inputs of a wide range of stakeholders and provides a strong starting point for our negotiations.

[Scene setter]

Since the last review in 2015, the digital landscape has rapidly evolved, presenting both opportunities and challenges. The zero draft broadly reflects our collective efforts and offers a clear vision for our digital future. Further work is needed to ensure that it responds fully to current realities and future needs. 

As we build on this foundation, let's enhance our ambitions, firm up our guiding principles, and define our strategic objectives. For 20 years, WSIS has advanced digital connectivity and reduced digital divides, including the gender digital divide, contributing to the SDGs. The EU remains committed to supporting the WSIS framework, promoting a human-centric and human rights based multi-stakeholder governance model for the digital transformation, ensuring innovation and technology drive the achievement of the SDGs, leaving no one behind. We urge all UN Member States to remain committed to universal, meaningful, connectivity as a means to empower individuals worldwide and build on our shared achievements.

Let me now outline the EU’s general comments on the zero draft, as background for the detailed proposals we will share during the informal discussions starting tomorrow. 

[Digital governance, accountability and human rights]

The EU's approach to the zero draft is guided by its commitment to ensuring openness, inclusiveness, trust, safety, transparency and accountability as enablers of responsible innovation that puts sustainable development and the common good front and center. In the spirit of Digital Humanism, upholding human rights, defending diversity in information sources, and preventing market power concentration remain central to our vision of an open, free, secure, inclusive, and trustworthy digital environment. These principles guide the EU's international engagement, and we believe the WSIS outcome document could be strengthened by incorporating these foundational elements.

[Sustainable Development]

We also advocate for stronger recognition of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the outcome document. We emphasize the synergies between new and emerging digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, and climate action, ensuring that digital innovation accelerates the green transition rather than slowing it down. The digital transformation should help reduce emissions, optimize resource use, and promote circular economies. 

[International digital cooperation]

As a union of 27 Member States, the EU has cultivated a strong culture of collaboration which it extends globally, by promoting partnerships of equals and developing innovation hubs that bridge regions and continents. The EU consistently aims fora digital transformation that is inclusive and beneficial for all – a message reaffirmed most recently last week during the Global Gateway Forum, which took place in Brussels with the participation of many leaders from G77 countries. 

The WSIS+20 review is a chance to deepen and modernize these partnerships for the next digital decade. Through the Global Gateway and its International Digital Strategy, the EU aims to expand and deepen existing partnerships and forge new ones, and promotes mutual resilience by investing in digital networks, infrastructures, and skills. Flagship initiatives include the EurAfrica cable and data centres, Africa-EU space partnership, Central Asia digital connectivity program, the India-Middle East- Europe Economic Corridor, the MEDUSA cable connecting the Mediterranean region, or the BELLA subsea cable linking Europe and Latin America & the Caribbean through the Atlantic that underpins the EU-LAC High Performance Computing Network. Together, these efforts advance the WSIS Action Lines, bridge digital divides and support the 2030 Agenda and the Global Digital Compact.

[Beyond WSIS+20]

As we look beyond WSIS+20, this review should establish a unified, coherent and forward-looking framework for global digital cooperation and the continued evolution of the governance of the Internet and digital technologies within the multistakeholder model. Let us reflect on what we, as a global community aim to achieve. Our vision is reflected in several key aspects of the WSIS process – allow me to highlight three examples that illustrate the approach. 

First, the digital transformation should be human-centric and human rights-based to contribute to sustainable development. This vision is reflected in the EU´s digital policy framework, promoting a trustworthy and human-centric digital ecosystem grounded in human rights. Building on this practical experience, the EU supports strengthening the role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights within the WSIS framework, to promote human rights, counter digital authoritarianism and guarantee a fair and equitable transition to digital societies. We must confront, in accordance with international human rights law, all forms of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, which occur through or are amplified by the use of technology, and all misuse of digital technologies, from information manipulation, hate speech and discrimination to surveillance, Internet shutdowns, and cybercrime, while upholding universal human rights and principles such as proportionality, legality and necessity as fundamental baseline. 

Secondly, the EU champions a robust and effective multistakeholder model of Internet governance, as reaffirmed in the Global Digital Compact. Ensuring the meaningful participation of all stakeholders — particularly from developing countries and underrepresented groups — in global digital policymaking is essential to keeping the Internet open, secure, interoperable and inclusive. The EU therefore supports the permanent institutionalisation of the Internet Governance Forum with a stable mandate and funding, recognising its central role in advancing inclusive and forward-looking Internet governance. To strengthen its impact, the EU proposes the creation of Multistakeholder Governance Labs within the IGF framework, as collaborative and adaptive spaces to explore, anticipate, test and come to a common understanding of the impacts caused by the deployment of emerging technologies on internet governance and identify appropriate, innovative solutions to address them. 

Finally, in view of the UN80 reform requirements, we believe the WSIS framework should be reaffirmed as the primary platform for implementing the digital aspects of the 2030 Agenda and the Global Digital Compact. We cannot afford parallel processes; we need better synergies and alignment. We therefore support reinforcing the UN Group on Information Society to advance coherence and coordination across the entire UN system, facilitating the multistakeholder, bottom-up, inclusive process that WSIS is. This will also ensure greater policy coherence and better allocation of resources. 

Consequently, in line with the latest CSTD resolution, the EU calls for concrete implementation roadmaps and metrics to align the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines with the SDGs and the Global Digital Compact, amplifying their collective impact and minimizing duplication and competition for limited financial resources. 

[Conclusion]

Dear colleagues, 

The ambition is clear: commit to proactively defend an open, free, global, interoperable, decentralised, reliable, safe and secure, human-centric and human rights-based Internet as enshrined in the Global Digital Compact.

As the embodiment of the first digital century, we bear a shared responsibility to shape an Internet that is open, safe and inclusive and to ensure that new and emerging digital technologies become enablers of human progress and sustainable development. 

As we look to the future, the European Union and its Member States stand ready to work with all stakeholders to shape a digital world that empowers and unites, rather than divides. The WSIS+20 review is our chance to reaffirm our commitment to a digital transformation that leaves no one behind. Let us work together to build a digital future that is sustainable, inclusive, and respects the rights and dignity of all individuals. 

Thank you.

[1]*North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.