Human-centric “simplification”: a contradiction in terms?

  • Panel
  • Maritime
  • Friday 22.05 — 14:15 - 15:30

Organising Institution

European Digital Rights (EDRi) x Rules to Protect

Europe

The EDRi network is a dynamic and resilient collective of NGOs, experts, advocates and academics working to defend and advance digital rights across the continent. For over two decades, it has served as the backbone of the digital rights movement in Europe. EDRi is hosting this panel on behalf of the Rules to Protect coalition, a movement of civil society organisations and trade unions working together for a public interest alternative to the EU's deregulation agenda.
  • Academic 1
  • Business 1
  • Policy 4
This panel brings together those concerned about protecting a democratic, privacy-respecting and liveable future, to dissect different digital deregulation efforts in the context of the EU’s broader attack on rights- and justice-based protections. We will interrogate how concurrent Omnibus proposals and other ‘simplification’ initiatives stack up to forms a wholesale backsliding of essential guarantees in the digital age: from dignified and safe working conditions, to breathable air, to due process in policing, increased concentration of power for big industry players and much more. Through this lens, we aim to show how the Digital Omnibus cannot be understood outside of its broader context, and emphasise the real cost of watering down hard-fought protections across the spectrum. At the same time, we will explore what genuine simplification which serves the public interest ought to look like, if it were truly to serve the enjoyment of rights, access to justice, the dignity of all communities and respect for the environment.

Questions to be answered

  1. What are the consequences of the EU's broader deregulation agenda (defence, environment, workers etc.) on people's digital rights and freedoms? What "digital" issues do we see in other areas of deregulation that aren't explicitly digital - and how might digital deregulation cause harms in other areas?"
  2. What would genuinely simpler access to rights and justice in these areas?
  3. How can we quantify the cost of harms to workers, communities, minoritised people, the environment and more?
  4. How can we resist?

Moderator

Olivier Hoedeman

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) - Europe

Olivier Hoedeman (Dutch/Danish, MA Political Science at the University of Amsterdam) is coordinator at Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), which he co-founded almost 30 years ago. Corporate Europe Observatory is a Brussels-based research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy-making. He is also co-founder of the Alliance for Lobby Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) and several other EU level civil society coalitions. Olivier Hoedeman has co-authored books like 'Europe Inc.' (2000), 'Reclaiming Public Water' (2007), 'Bursting the Brussels Bubble' (2010) and 'Cities versus Multinationals' (2020). For more than a decade, he has monitored tobacco industry lobbying in Brussels and advocated for strict EU implementation of UN rules around such lobbying.