Anne Meuwese, a specialist in administrative law and professor at the University of Leiden (Netherlands), presented the conclusions of her study on assessing the European added value of digitalisation and administrative law to the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on Tuesday 30 May.
“Although there is no administrative law at EU level, this law is reflected in a whole series of provisions”, she began, before adding: “Here, we looked at the repercussions of this rapid digitalisation of EU administration”.
Anne Meuwese also pointed out that the “digitalisation of public administration” referred to a whole series of automated practices and procedures, such as e-governance, the use of algorithms for decision-making and the system for combating fraud using artificial intelligence.
Combined with the desire to protect citizens’ rights, these practices present a number of “challenges” and shortcomings detailed by Ms Meuwese: the lack of clarity in the scope of application, the complexity of the legal system, “which are problems that may increase as a result of digitalisation”. Added to this are the problems of hiatus or inconsistency, due to other legislative activities and the difficulty of creating the link between these new legislative provisions and administrative law. “For citizens and individuals, even when we know that there is an IT tool used by the administrative authorities, we have no idea of the repercussions and effects this could have”, explained the specialist in administrative law.
Furthermore, according to Anne Meuwese, many digital activities are invisible, which can lead to “a whole series of errors” whose source is difficult to trace. Finally, “the possibility of decisions being reversed and of being treated unfairly” also appear to be obstacles to the proper management of a digital administration.
Ms Meuwese proposed several approaches in this respect. First of all, creating rules of administrative procedure. “This means that we would have a traditional model, as exists in most Member States, based on individual decision-making. We would adapt this to the digital environment. In this context, we need to reactivate the right to a defence”, she explained.
The second possibility outlined by Anne Meuwese would be to have an administrative activity regulation. In other words, “a new way of aligning our values with the digital environment right from the start of the decision-making process”. To achieve this, “digitised information must be central to administrative processes”, she added. She added: “In the first scenario, we are there to respond in the event of an administrative error. In the second, to prevent this error. The important thing is to guarantee the right to information”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)