 The European Union would like to thank the ITU for organising this policy forum on such an important and topical subject. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the role of the telecommunication technologies in our lives but also exposed the vulnerabilities of our societies as well as the digital divide. As set out in the draft report from the ITU Secretary General, we must all redouble our efforts to address the particular challenges faced by developing countries in mobilising new and emerging ICT technologies for sustainable development. In this regard, the EU supports the ITU's central role in accelerating the achievement of the SDGs by providing assistance to reduce the digital divide, including the gender digital divide, by increasing universal and affordable connectivity and by supporting digital literacy. We also reiterate the need to adopt a human rights-based approach throughout all these efforts in order to achieve a meaningful, inclusive and sustainable connectivity which promotes human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the right to privacy and freedom of expression, and which allows the right to privacy and freedom of expression, and which enables us all to access an innovative, secure, stable, open and free internet. It's particularly important to uphold a multi-stakeholder cooperation model. Similar considerations are central importance, also in the development of ITU standards, which need to promote not only security but also human rights. To achieve this in an environment where technological evolution often outpaces the legislative and policymaking process, we reiterate the need for a consensus-based approach and for the involvement of all relevant stakeholders, including non-governmental and private actors, who are driving much of the innovation. The EU also encourages the ITU to promote standards that allow for climate-friendly and energy-friendly ICT technologies to lower the carbon footprint. At the European Union level, we put citizens at the heart of our digital discussions. The 2030 digital compass and the digital decade seek to ensure full respect for fundamental rights and principles in the digital space, including access to diverse, trustworthy and transparent information, protection of personal data and privacy, as well as the protection of intellectual creation in the online space. As the largest donor to the ITU development activities, the EU also closely cooperates with the ITU and the African Union on various projects in Africa. We launched in December 2020 a digital redevelopment hub, which is a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism for sharing digital expertise with four regions. The first SOT hub project in Africa is already operational, while the similar hubs in Latin America and the Caribbean was launched this Tuesday. Finally, in the framework of the new global gateway strategy, the European Union is looking forward to working with partner countries to deploy and invest in new digital infrastructures in order to achieve financially and environmentally sustainable connectivity. Thank you, Chair.