By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission on Wednesday in a global first proposed a set of digital rights and principles that aim to protect people’s rights, support democracy and ensure a fair and safe online environment.
The digital rights and principles also cover digital devices, ensuring that they support the bloc’s sustainability and green transition goals by providing details on the environmental impact and energy consumption of the devices.
The EU executive said the digital rights and principles aim to provide a guide for policy makers and companies when dealing with new technologies.
“The declaration of digital rights and principles also establishes once and for all that what is illegal offline should also be illegal online. We also aim to promote these principles as a standard for the world,” EU industry chief Thierry Breton said in a statement.
“We want everyone to be empowered to take an active part in our increasingly digitised societies. This declaration gives us a clear reference point to the rights and principles for the online world,” EU digital chief Margrethe Vestager said.
The Commission hopes to sign a declaration on these rights and principles with EU countries and the European Parliament by this summer.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)
