The European Parliament and the Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, seemed to agree on the need to tackle social issues in the face of the challenges raised by digital platforms, artificial intelligence and automation.
Thus, the need to better protect workers on digital platforms and the need to re-qualify European workers to provide them with the basic skills needed in the digital age (around 100 million workers, according to Mr Schmit) were the two main themes addressed by the various speakers.
During the discussions, many points of consensus also emerged, such as the importance of asserting the right to disconnection, protecting workers’ private data (in the face of the growth of data-based personnel management), addressing gender inequality in digital skills acquisition, and maximising public-private investment.
On this last point, Dragoş Pîslaru (Renew Europe, Romania), speaking on behalf of his group, suggested the idea of using InvestEU to invest “massively” in digital culture and skills. Elzbieta Rafalska (ECR, Poland), for her part, stressed the importance of taking into account the territorial inequalities between Western and Eastern Europe in digital policies.
22 September 2020. Nicolas Schmit has scheduled a major event: on 22 September, a summit will be held on the protection of workers on digital platforms. The Commissioner also stressed that the European Commission plans to present a whole series of future initiatives, with Nicolas Schmit citing a revision of the Youth Guarantee (a scheme to help young people under 25 gain access to a job or an apprenticeship), with the emphasis on digital skills.
The debate was put on the plenary agenda by Ismaïl Ertug (S&D, Germany), whose group adopted a document on the subject the previous week (see EUROPE 12421/23). In a way, this document is a response to Renew Europe and the EPP’s working documents, which, in the Social Democrats’ view, place too much focus on economic aspects. The digital issue is gaining momentum in Parliament, which has set up a special committee dedicated to artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 12420/7). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)