The EU has launched the Global Initiative on the Future of the Internet (GIFI) to promote the open internet. The Open Internet and a human rights-based and human-centric digital transition are recognised as drivers of sustainable development.

GIFI is a two-year project to promote the Declaration for the Future of the Internet. In the Declaration for the Future of the Internet, the EU and 70 international partners set out the vision and principles of a trusted Internet.

• Follow the link to learn more about the Global Initiative on the Future of the Internet.

GIFI is led by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence. It a multi-stakeholder project to promote the Open Internet and the principles of the Declaration for the Future of the Internet (DFI) which promotes a positive agenda for the future of the Internet.

The EU’s vision for digital transformation puts people at the centre, in line with EU values and fundamental rights. GIFI uses a mix of policy support, research and outreach activities in a globally collaborative and rights-based approach.

Global open internet

By being accessible to all and respectful of human rights, digital technologies have the potential to promote connectivity, democracy & peace, the rule of law and sustainable development.

However, the global vision of an open nature is challenged by competing ideas of closed technical, economic and social approaches to Internet governance. Governments are increasingly misusing Internet and digital tools to violate human rights and fundamental freedoms

Such violations include the expanding use of malicious cyber activities and proliferation of cyber-intrusion capabilities that cause harm to humans and businesses. It also includes the spread of illegal content and disinformation.

• The Declaration for the Future of the Internet sets out the vision and principles of a trusted Internet. Follow the link to download The Declaration for the Future of the Internet (PDF)

We stand against efforts to divide the Internet and will continue to work together with our partners around the world to protect human rights online and across the digital ecosystem. – Josep Borrell, HR/VP for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

Get involved: GIFI events around the world

• UPCOMING: Decrypting digital authoritarianism- How the use of the internet can threaten democracy and human rights (28-29 October 2024, Florence, Italy)
• Towards an inclusive digital transition. Case studies of the Open Internet in Africa at the ICANN80 GAC Conference (8 June 2024, Kigali, Rwanda)
• Unlocking multistakeholder cooperation within the UN system: Global partnerships for Open Internet at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) (29 May 2024, Geneva, Switzerland)
• Creating robust digital networks for resilient prosperity at the 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States (27 May 2024, Antigua and Barbuda)
• Multistakeholder internet governance: enabling a sustainable digital future at the UN Civil Society Conference on the Summit of the Future (9 May 2024, Nairobi, Kenya)
• Launch of new reports on African Approaches to the Open Internet at the 2024 Digital Rights & Inclusion Forum (23 April 2024, Accra, Ghana).
• At the crossroads of digital futures - Defining the EU’s priorities for the Global Digital Compact negotiations (9 April 2024, online)

The future of the Internet is also the future of democracy, of humankind. - Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission