 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start our meeting, our 153rd meeting plenary session of the Committee of the Regions. Before we start our work, there is something I would like to share with you. The news reaching us from Turkey and Syria following the earthquake on Monday are tragic and heartbreaking. It is estimated that thousands of people were affected by this event, including, unfortunately, many that and injured. It is times like this that more than testing the ability to provide assistance between regions and states do truly put to the test the basic values of solidarity, mutual aid and humanity. On behalf of the European Committee of the Regions, I had already the opportunity to express the condolences and the solidarity to the people of Turkey and Syria for this tragic event. After the destruction caused by nature, may men and women now be able, with hope and humanity, to build a better future for the populations that survived this terrible event. Dear members, I would like now to invite you to join me in a minute of silence for the victims of this earthquake and a demonstration of solidarity for all those involved in the rescue operations. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, now we're going to proceed. We have point number one of our meeting. If there is no objection or comments, the agenda is adopted. Point number two, if there is no objection, the minutes of our 152nd meeting are approved, adopted. Point number three, three of our agenda. Dear colleagues, dear members, I am very pleased and honored to welcome you today to this session that, as you all know, was supposed to take place in the room of the plenary of the European Parliament but considering extraordinary and unforeseen circumstances takes place in this venue, I would like on behalf of the Committee of the Regents to express our gratitude to the European Parliament and to the services both of the Parliament and of the Committee of the Regents for all their work to have us here in this venue. Now we move to point four of our agenda. We have a debate on the role of local and regional authorities for the digital age. It's my honor and pleasure to welcome Madam Vice President, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the digital age. And Margaret Westager, it's a pleasure to have you here with us in our meeting. Thank you so much for having accepted our invitation. The Committee of the Regents has played a major role in recent years in ensuring the EU digital agenda becomes a reality also at local and regional level. So we look forward to discussing with you the various aspects of the digital agenda from a local and regional perspective this afternoon. Without further delay, it's my pleasure to give the floor to the Executive Vice President Westager for 10 minutes. You have the floor, Madam. Well, thank you very much. President, honourable members, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for the invitation to have this debate. These are extraordinary times, as we just marked, also with sorrow or sadness for lives being lost. And while we are speaking, the war in Ukraine is soon to have its very sad one-year mocking. In Ukraine, they are fighting for European values. The European flag was the one that was crowning the revolution of the Mayden Square. The Commission was just there to a Commission to Government meeting. And one might believe that this is the most important thing to do to fight the war. But you do that in so many levels. And the interesting thing is that other than their incredible determination, their courage, they also keep using digital technology for their country to function on the most amazing level. I think they are far more digitalised than most European countries. The things you can do with the state-in-app DEA, as it's called, just to give you one example, the suggestion is that if you change light bulbs in Ukraine to LED light bulbs, you can save up to 10% of energy use, which is really, really important in the situation that they're in. So in the app, you can say, this is where I live. This is the closest post office. I would like to have this kind of new light bulbs, and you press, and a few days after, you can pick up your light bulbs in the post office of your preference. So very close to the individual citizen in Ukraine, in a situation of war, they press on with using digital tools to make the best for the citizens. The second thing that is, of course, the responsibility of our generation is to fight climate change. There is war, yes, but you cannot negotiate with the planet to please put climate change on hold until we have won the war. Not possible. So we need, of course, to push on. And also here, the use of digital tools is absolutely of the essence. For instance, to enable citizens to see what is the water level of nearby lakes and rivers, or for people to follow how they are doing with recycling. So from the all global encompassing climate change to the individual citizen, digital tools can make the connection and make you see that this is part of your life, that you are part of the fight against climate change. And in the geopolitics that we live in, probably it cannot be more important how we use digital tools. I have the responsibility of making Europe fit for the digital age. I had to get my head around that title, because actually I do think that the task is to make sure that we use technology in the best possible way, not that we fit the human in a certain shape or form that is fit for technology. And the most fundamental choice that we have made is also the most simple one. That technology is about people. It is the human being in the centre, the integrity, the respects of every individual. That is the driving force. And this is what you see in our digital decades targets, that we have translated into a digital decade policy programme. You also see it in the Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles that the Council, the Parliament and the European Commission signed in December in order to show that you as a citizen in this digital transformation that you have rights. We have set objective targets for 2030 and none of those targets will just happen by themselves. They will only happen when we take action positively to enable change. For instance, the obvious thing that you can identify yourself. Not with your Facebook login, not with your Google accounts, but with the identity that has been provided for you just like a passport has been provided for you. So that it is not a commercial thing that you can present yourself as who you are. And we would want every union citizen to have access to secure digital ID at the latest by 2030. And as you hopefully agree with me, regions and local communities have a key role to play in making the best use of technology. Because regions and local communities, well, they are as close to citizens as one can come. And this is also why we think that when member states do their national roadmaps for the digital decades, how to get there with digitisation of public services, how to help businesses to rethink their business model to make the most of digital technology, how to get the infrastructure right, and how to make sure that everyone is skilled. Well, member states should not do that without active consulting regions and local communities, because that, of course, makes it much more likely that it will actually work. Outside of the digital decade policy programme, and some funding comes with it, of course the cohesion policy, the funding that it provides is there to enable again the best use of digital technology. And the thing is that where we are right now, we have a risk of enforcing, increasing a digital divide if we not very specifically addresses that this is what we want to avoid. My guess is that probably 80% of people they will say this is nice, it makes my life easier, I don't have to wait in queues, I don't have to go to a specific place, it makes my life easy. And then probably you have 20% who say no, I don't know, is this safe, or can I do this? And of course the task is to make sure that everyone feels that they are on board. And also that no one is excluded because of lack of connectivity, or the lack of offer to get the skills needed actually to come on board. And this is why we have these different initiatives, like the European Urban Initiative set up in September last year. What we do here is to test new solutions to foster digital governance, to improve digital public services. Or we have the Livingin.eu movement set up by CITES in 2019, nearly 140 signatories and 130 supporters today. Because CITES, villages, regions, they can make the real difference. And last but not least, these are very practical things to do. From the principles of people first, of the integrity and the respect of the individual in the centre, there's a lot of practical things to get done. For instance, that different systems can speak with one another. We launched late last year a proposal called Interoperable Europe, where we want to set up a board with representatives also from this committee in order to make sure that we have a forum where we can enforce that it's not a choice that technology should speak with each other. It's an obligation that technology should speak with each other. Because otherwise, we are left where we were stranded. And that, I think, is a very important point that we will leave no one stranded when it comes to technology. The last thing that I think is mind-boggling for everyone is, of course, how to make sure that it's all safe. Because we see the benefits of digital technology in our hospitals, in our schools, in fighting climate change, in having ease with public services, in paying our taxes, in paying for whatever we buy and eradicating corruption and on-VAT work. For all these positive things to be harvested, it needs to be safe. Because already today, we have seen the devastating effects of cyberattacks for hospitals, telecommunication, our railroads. And for the next year or so, new obligations will come into force with the vision of the NIS-2 directive. And I think that is one of the important reassurances that you should also be able to give. That, yes, we want to use these technologies, but we will not only use them when we can guarantee that it is safe. And this is just to say that if we are to be successful in this use of technology, this is not a task for the Commission. It's not a task for a member state. It's a task for every one of us in order to make sure that our objectives, which is not to fit the human in a digital shape, but for every one of us to make the most of the technologies that are so promising. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Now we're going to proceed to give the floor to the political groups of the Committee of the Regents. And I now give the floor for two minutes to our member, Marku Markula. You have the floor, two minutes. First of all, thank you. Thank you, Madam Vestager. So impressive work that you've been doing in your role by integrating different policy sectors together and seeing the crucial role of digitalisation. That's what we want to stress on behalf of the EPP especially. But let me try to be a bit more concrete, because in all of this work we need to start so our major EU target as well implementing sustainable development goals. And everything on that. We cannot get that done without digitalisation. Green and digital, they go hand in hand. And that's good in the recent EU policy especially. I want to stress that heavily. And we have taken that in most of the EU regions practically on our regional umbrella of the SDGs and how to move on. And let me just highlight because I want to show to you as well with the Helsinki region, the capital region, a special report how we are and will be more forerunner in implementing the innovation agenda. But all this is related on what you exactly said. So we start out with the first of our key messages that we implement green and digital transition and we will be carbon neutral by 2030. The whole region, hundreds of square kilometres of cities, smaller towns and the countryside, forests and the Baltic Sea. So we have an ambitious plan and how we want to reach that. We start with more investments in research and development to true and get through them more innovation. That it is specially driven and investments by private sector because they are drivers and on that so we cannot rely on public sector, national capital investments on R&D only but we need again go hand in hand. Our regional targets is no less than reach the level of 5% on GDP and that's where the digitalisation makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Member Thomas Schmidt for two minutes. Thank you very much. Vice President, thank you. The net world that we live in offers us new chances, new opportunities, but new dangers as well, something we've realised in Saxon. We've faced two significant cyber attacks on the University in Freiburg and the Technical College in Zwickau. People are aware of this danger and they're worried. So it's good that the Commission is picking up the issue of digital resilience. It's good to see it on the agenda. For us from the regions, I think two things are important. Firstly, we need to create the necessary preconditions for a digital network. Digital cohesion is important throughout Europe and it's important to develop that in the regions. That's a fundamental thing. Secondly, the multifaceted aspects need to be brought together from the very start. If the initiatives at the European level, they need to be supplemented and they need to work together with markets and services to allow the possibility of provision of digital services to citizens so that they can have easy access with the chip laws, we can look at the question of raw materials, particularly with regard to semiconductors and for a law for an interoperable Europe, which we're looking at in the Econ Committee next week we'll be looking at cross-border digital provision of services. So there's a lot already being done but we can't let up in our pace. It's very important this remain at the top of our priorities. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to member Concepción Andrea Rodriguez. You have the floor for four minutes. Muchísimas gracias, querido Presidente. Thank you very much, Jim. Vice President of the Commission, thank you very much for the leadership you've been providing on this issue. I'm from one of the northern regions of Spain, La Rioja and it's also my honour to be the Deputy Chair of the Socialist Group in the Committee of the Regions. My group's firm belief is that the digital transition must leave no one and no territory behind, as you quite rightly stressed when you took the floor. The digital development must be of benefit to the whole of our citizenship regardless of how far away the place they live may be. Our group has called for the digital dimension to be built into the general considerations governing territorial cohesion. Now returning the focus to La Rioja, it's a region with a population of 317,000 people. It accounts for 0.66% of the total population of Spain. Just 0.66% of the population. But thanks to our size, we are a good region when it comes to running pilot projects. They will have impacts that are easy to gauge with a significant impact. Just a couple of very quick examples. We're a territory where we deliver digital services. The Agora programme focuses on the complete renovation of digital management and electronic registers. I'm glad to say that this has been funded by European funds with a 100% guarantee for the administrative procedures which can be carried out online wherever you are in the region. The second project I'd like to mention is the Valley of the Language. That's set out in the strategic project of the Spanish government dubbed the New Language Economy. This is a range of educational, cultural, linguistic and research programmes but the top priority here is applying artificial intelligence to natural language. The government of La Rioja wants our territory where the most ancient texts in the Spanish language were found to be on the leading edge of the language economy. Now, this new stage in language knowledge, as I was saying, revolves around artificial intelligence which is a real industrial revolution with great business opportunities inherent in it. Our purpose is to convert La Rioja into an area where we will be able to roll out all these innovative technological experimental proposals which will help speed up economic and social development of our region. On top of that, as a result of this, the same could apply to all those regions where the findings of our pilot project could be applied. We can fight the loss of population thanks to digitalisation in the process of promoting equality between rural and urban areas. At the same time where we're supporting the Commission's green industrial programme, La Rioja shares the same goals. We have to uphold social rights to the rights of workers in a wide context with environmental sustainability and social sustainability getting together. And this is very much in line with the priorities of the Socialist Group I should add. Thank you. Post-member Martin von Grütusen, you have the floor. Three minutes. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Thank you, first of all, on behalf of the Renew Group at the EU Committee of the Regions. I would like to thank Executive Vice President, Mrs. Verstager, for her statement and her efforts to make Europe really fit for the digital age. The EU Digital Goals for 2030 will help European regions and cities to become digital resilient. And the EU Framework with Regulations will help to create a trustworthy human-centred digital environment. And in my own region, the Dutch province of Norddrabant, where, among others, ASML Company with its unique chip machine is located near the city of Eindhoven, we feel responsible and we feel responsibility to lead and prioritise and invest in the digital transformation. And for me and my colleagues, digitalisation is chef's sake. As a regional public administration, we are proud to say that we are ISO certificate with a chief information officer and a chief information security officer. And we pay close attention to the implementation of the NIS-2 directive. And in addition, the Grand Initiative, the Jordanian Academy of Data Science in the city of Sechtogenbosch, is a unique knowledge institute in my own region. And as a region, we invest in the so-called data labs, where data is not only about monitoring, but it is also about predicting value. And impact. And the goal is to get more out of data so that we can improve our regional policies. We are therefore looking forward to the upcoming European data spaces. And we need to keep working on the conscious awareness of cyber security. Related to upcoming acts like the AI Act, for example, it is important to keep an eye on the target audience to create real trust among people. And if there is a good fundament, we can really enjoy the opportunities, like the Vice President mentioned, of data sharing and new technologies. And we also highlight this during our annual National Data Week in the city of Sechtogenbosch in my region and organised by the city of Den Bosch and several other private partners. And I would like to invite Mrs. Festark to be part of the next edition in this interesting week to see and hear and look and feel about innovative ideas on data use. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now the floor goes to member Marco Marsilio for two and a half minutes. Thank you, President. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Commission. The geopolitical instability generated by Russia's war in Ukraine has left Europe facing its own weaknesses. That applies to the Union's digital policy, too, investing in our responsibility to design our agenda to ensure our digital sovereignty. A recent study from the Committee on Digital Concerns shows how vulnerable we are to cyber attacks. There could be a digital pandemic having a very serious impact on public administration and the public. Local and regional authorities need to enhance their digital resilience. So it's a matter of urgency to set out a course of action for digitalising the European Union with the possibility of complementary funding, avoiding overlap between the member states and the European level, which would be wasteful. Europe needs to be better prepared and carry out more resilience tests on its digital infrastructures. It must invest in safe digitalisation, increasing links amongst the member states in such a way that will optimise the use of public services with significant economic benefits for businesses, too. Enhancing interoperability in the public sector will help build up strategic political independence in Europe. Improving the provision of services to citizens online also creates new business opportunities for technology firms in the various member states. Bringing in the private sector will allow us to try out differing approaches in different territories. I must comment, Commissioner, on the Commission's proposal last week on viewing state aid. Now, of course, there's a need to support firms in a difficult position in strategic sectors. In the light of the measures taken by the United States, we must nonetheless prevent any risk to the single market, so that certain member states being able to afford state aid to others would not be able to. We need a level playing field for everyone without undermining Europe's political competitiveness. For two minutes. Dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, research and innovation are key enablers for sustainable economic growth and the creation of jobs. In the European Alliance Group, fully believe that flexible future-proof regulatory framework for digital innovation is necessary to address challenges and opportunities flowing from the rise of industry. We believe it is important to remove barriers which businesses and local regional authorities currently face when investing in digitalization, for example, in the field of artificial intelligence, big data, cybersecurity, digital services. This is very common to say about how to translate to the real life. Digital literacy needs to be improved across Europe, and the digital and technological divide between urban, rural and remote areas should be reduced. And don't forget, human sight cannot be ignored, for instance, in public administration. It is not possible to save on people due to computerization in human services. Apps cannot substitute men. And let's speak about the green deal. Technology can improve energy and resource efficiency, facilitate the circular economy, lead to a better allocation of resources, reduce emissions, pollution, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. If well-managed digital technologies have also been a driving force behind democratization, citizen expression and social progress. And don't forget, once for the human side. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to member Josef Frey for two minutes. President, Vice President, colleagues. The EU has set ambitious goals for digitalization and climate protection. And for the Greens, it's important that both of these objectives be pursued together. Digital solutions should help climate protection. Because if we don't solve the problem of the climate, we won't need digitalization. So we're talking about a double green and digital transition, so that in future we can combine the production and the use of electricity for digital vehicles and for other purposes. We need to be digitally competitive in the European Union and we need to be attractive to businesses from this point of view. Worldwide competition needs to be taken into account in particular in Asia and the USA. There is less competition within the EU. It's not really so much about that, but it's more about competing with third countries than within the EU. And resilience is a key word here. We need a more efficient solar panel production within the EU. And another example is that we could use digitalization to improve our circular economy. We need to give leading regions in this assistance because they can lead the way for other European regions. With that in mind, I welcome the recent proposals of the Commission for a Green Deal Industry Plan. The strong innovative regions need to attract new businesses and be very competitive in this. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Paula Fernández-Viana for one minute. Muchísimas gracias, presidente. Thank you very much. The Government of Contabria is committed to fighting the population and giving the peoples of these areas services which exist in cities. Now it's very difficult to try and attract new neighbours to our regions if we do not offer them a high quality internet connection. This isn't a luxury, it's an absolute need. The lack of quality networks that enable digital services or the use of digital or mobile telephones is a serious problem. And it also makes decent education very difficult. It deprives people of the possibility to work. Those looking for employment in the rural areas need a good network. Digital fibres, 5G will attract populations to our regions. Better using technology can also be used in agriculture and livestock. We are running a programme, Connect Contabria, starting from March 2019 which enables us to increase cover. One minute. The initiative will lead to technological progress. And offer more possibilities to our citizens. In Koshitsa we are focusing on that. We have just celebrated the birthday of our new innovation centre, the first birthday. We are talking about innovation in our area at this event and that all showed that we are a region that pays a lot of attention to these issues. And for that reason in the last ten years, we have seen a growth in the IT sector and it's become the second most important sector in our region. It's important to us that we work together with European institutions and that we use financial assistance to foster these aims. Thank you, Cem. In the Morte region we think the challenges of the digital age require investment and adequate training of highly qualified staff who will have a grasp of the new technologies which have an increasing impact on the services local authorities provide to citizens. It's hard to fight for talent in a market which after the pandemic has seen Labour constituting up. That's particularly relevant when you're talking about cybersecurity. Taking together with recent cyberattacks, firms and administrations have been under constant attack. If we're to be ready to fund off those attacks we have to have massive investment and should we have interoperability amongst the various administrations. If the cyber security centres are interoperable we'll be better able to serve businesses and the administration in that way we can make the best use of public resources and rise to cyber security challenges. Thank you for the floor, Mr Prehn. Good and important that we talk about digital resilience and local and regional governments today in this session. Digital infrastructure is vital and must be protected. Good that Europe is taking the lead. I want to appreciate the commissioner's emphasis of leaving nobody stranded when it comes to this. I think that's the true core of true resilience. If we leave our citizens behind they cannot adapt. We will never have true resilience and data and technology security. The basic needs to be in order but digital resilience is more than that and needs a multi-dimensional approach. In our city, Sertogenbos, we are having different labs to make sure that everybody can come along. Not only the digital natives but also the digital illiterate. And how can we make sure that there are no new gaps in our society in Europe? I think I want to echo the words of member van Grijthuijzen who spoke about the Uranium Academy for Data Science which is a unique institution in Europe but also the data we can now. Thank you. Member Eric Fleafolm, one minute. Thank you very much. Thank you for the huge work. We in our Denmark region are very aware of the need for support from the EU so that our region can make sure that we can offer the digital services required. We have worked with providers and digital service receivers and that's very good but we need also to recognise the need for better solutions in the well-regulated sector. So we needed to ensure that we fully understand the legislation with regard to providers. We understand at the moment the importance to have a high level of quality with regard to understanding legislation and we want further dialogue around digitalisation in Europe as this goes on. Thank you. Thank you. Member Altonia, one minute. Thank you. President, thank you Vice President. The region that I represent is aware of these issues, digital issues both at the regional level and at the EU level including the importance of being competitive in digital technology and also in climate protection and other issues. We need to make investments to ensure that we have faster data transfers. We need to promote AI and encourage all citizens as has already been said to reduce the digital divide and also we need to make the digital sector more attractive in particular for women. This is important within our region in France. That's one I'm particularly attached to and we will pay close attention to all of their developments here. One of my colleagues spoke about cyber security. This is important to us too. Thank you. Member Dobromir Dobreff, one minute. President, Mrs Vestage, ladies and gentlemen, I'm eager to see what the results of the digital sustainability will be but clearly they will show the lack of coordination between the different levels, both in implementing the reforms and in designing the changes. Investing in digitalisation is going on piecemeal in the Bulgarian communities. Only half of the centres are linked to the central administration which is key in order to guarantee secure links with Internet. The important thing is to have mutually linked municipalities and the lack of this brings about fragmentation and only after the Covid crisis and the plans for recovery and resilience we set aside certain resources for the local authorities. This does not compensate for lax. Digitalisation is very important for the health sector and the authorities have very important responsibilities here. The commission has put forward proposals here and that is something that we'll be looking at later. There are three things I'd like to underline for development. It's extremely important that the recognition of the existing digital systems is taken into account so that investment already underway is not cast aside. Secondly, sharing services across borders needs to take place in a secure manner where we take note of the importance of the considerations of patients and healthcare providers. Thirdly, there is huge potential in sharing data across borders. That's true for research and treatment of patients. It can benefit patients but it shouldn't serve industrial interests and the tech giants' conditions. We need to put patients and providers' interests first to serve the interests of the communes but overall it's very positive that we're moving towards greater sharing of data across border. It gives better possibility for treatment, research and innovation. Mr. Schausberger, one minute. Vice President, I don't need to emphasise the importance of the commission making digitalisation one of its main focuses. The many member states have estate secretaries and departments for this that they've newly created. The regions are in competition with one another. You've already spoken about this terrible one, Ukraine, and we realise that digital technologies play a key role in war either from the point of view of cyber attacks but also for other reasons such as transmitting information and disinformation. Beyond that, there's the fact that Ukraine in this war had already carried out administrative digitalisation right down to the local level and digitalisation has many advantages as we can see but it can be used to nefarious ends. During the corona period, we saw a huge increase in digital use. One further thing, digitalisation needs to be continued to be offered to the citizens and we mustn't forget the older people in this. Turk, you have the floor for one minute. Ladies and gentlemen, it is undoubtable that we are in the digital age. However, I must say that we are still not sufficiently aware of the need to strengthen the digital resilience of the public administration and of critical infrastructure. We see that digital and cybernetic attacks have increased in frequency. Local infrastructure as well as digital infrastructure are not visible and they are not paid enough attention to as long as they are working. Local authorities have limited resources and they find it difficult to finance the necessarily level of protection for critical infrastructure. We have not enough experts and we cannot employ them, we cannot hire them. We have to strengthen this resilience by establishing infrastructure at the national level and also by establishing services for security and we must be able to hire the necessary experts. Thank you. Member Donatella Tese, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you. The next decade will no doubt see a significant digital transformation and we need to take stock of the need for the regions and local authorities to act as hubs for this digital revolution. They will need to gear up, to have stable structures within them over the medium to longer term. Taking forward the digital transformation seen as a process of necessary constant adaptation to square up to innovation and very fast change where digital infrastructure and cybersecurity are critical elements for the lives of citizens and the growth of businesses. In pursuit of this, the role of the regions is particularly important both in terms of proper data management and monitoring, but also interoperability and automatic exchanges of data, in other words, between the administration and private individuals. These are key elements. Digital resilience requires special skills that it's hard to find locally. So the regions will have to play a subsidiary role here for the smaller entities within their areas so that they can make the most of synergy with European national and regional funds. The German speaker cuts the speaker off. You have the floor for one minute. Senor Presidente, gentil... Thank you, President, Commissioner. And my question as the Committee of the Regions rapporteur on interoperability, I'd like to thank the Commission for this proposal, which takes stocks of serious concerns we've raised in the past regarding the need to involve local and regional authorities in the governance of interoperability. As a representative of Sardinia, allow me to say that this is a crucial issue. We will continue to monitor the involvement of the citizen regions, but above all, we will be careful to ensure that the costs of the digital transition are not all laid at the door of local authorities, and we will continue to call for support from national and European authorities. We're aware of the fact that most of the services offered to European citizens in our cities and regions have a cross-border element to them, whether you're talking about offering automated parking services, sharing the numbers of beds available in hospitals across the border. All these services have to be interoperable. That's why the contribution of the Committee of the Regions must be properly borne in mind by the other European institutions because we will be in the front line when it comes to putting the new rules into practice. Marius Frankowski, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. I will speak in Polish. The coronavirus has sped up the digital transformation. At all levels of our administrations, we need to insist on putting interoperability in place and what I'd like to do today is draw your attention to the metaverse in our local politics. The data that we obtain at local level allow us to provide even better services for our citizens. We need to focus on accessibility to services and the role of services in the functioning of the community as a whole. We need to be very aware of the dangers of identity theft, something we need to prevent, and we need to encourage use of digital tools. And I'd like to draw your attention to the possibility of benefiting from the universe. To final remarks, you have ten minutes. The floor is yours. Well, first and foremost, this has been a very reassuring debate. I was quite certain that we was on the right track to make the best use of digital technology to serve our citizens in the best possible way. With your interventions, I feel that this is guaranteed because the intervention shows, I think, a very comforting balance between the necessity of making technology safe and trusted and to make the most of the use of it. And I think that is the threat between the different interventions. A few remarks from the top. What was said first by Makula on the global sustainability goals in digital, that for us is absolutely crucial because the development goals, they're part of our compass. And it's not enough to say that digital is carbon neutral because you have sort of plugged in a windmill. No, you also need to work on lowering the energy use of the data senders and everything else we have because the energy produced by that windmills can be used for other purposes. And we need to make sure that digitization does not become or continue to be a climate problem in itself. And this is also why it's so important for Europe to invest in semiconductors because as we can push more and more businesses to use semiconductors in their products and the most advanced nodes, then the energy use will go down. Second, I also commend the remarks that it's important to crowd in private sector funding. And I think there is a very important mechanism at stake here. You all represent very strong customers. You represent entities, regions in Europe that has a strategic approach to use digitization. In Europe, we have been too shy to see the public sector as a driver of innovation because when we start digitalizing public services, when we insist that they should be safe, when we want every citizen to take part, we are also part of shaping how things will be done. And that, of course, is very important in creating private sector responses to the needs that we have. I think the point also by Thomas Schmidt on having the raw materials needed is well taken. The thing is that when you look at the raw materials that goes into this, it's very important that Europe stays open but also that we use many more of our own resources and that we make sure that everything digital is also fully recyclable and can be repaired. Ages ago, the Commission made a study that showed that if everyone keeps their mobile phone for just another year, it would be the equivalent of taking a million cars of the streets. So there's a lot to be gained in circularity and in things being able to be repaired. I think it's really interesting to have sort of the approach of conception that one should be a pilot, one should test things, one should push the limit as to what has been done before and one should indeed push the limit as to how we see things. A valley of languages, to see how we can make the many languages of Europe a real strength for us in the language economy, I think that is absolutely crucial. And the point made to say that digital tools can enable us to prevent depopulation of our regions, I think that is absolutely also a strategic point. For that to happen, of course, we need the infrastructure to be in place. We're still not there fully when it comes to infrastructure, neither on 5G nor on fiber nor on satellite connection for regions where broadband connectivity is not possible. And that ought to be a focus. Martin von Grünhausen said, I think something absolutely crucial, that digitization is Chef Sache. And I think it illustrates a paradox because on the one hand side, digitization is about how we develop our society. A discussion that everyone here, of course, has an obvious interest in participating in. On the other hand side, I think everyone is a bit, ah, this is technical. This might be not secure. And the thing is really important that we bridge that so that we make sure that this is not just driven by the technical solutions, but that the facts that we have strategies, that we have policy goals, is part and parcel of what we do. Because if we let technology drive it, we ends up in a situation where it's not democracy that sets the rules, but that is decisions taken in boardrooms, where we have no access and where democracy is not the name of the game. And this is why the idea to have chief technology development officers at all levels of how we go about it is absolutely essential. So that someone who is absolutely next to decision makers has a responsibility, has the access to take the necessary action. We are working very hard on the act on artificial intelligence. And here, we are not trying to regulate technology because as we speak, it will have developed. What we are trying to develop is how to control the use of technology. My guess is that in the coming years, many of you will implement artificial intelligence in the regions where you have responsibility. Since there is a risk that AI can discriminate, can like men more than women, or a majority over a minority, or people from one postcode rather than people from another postcode, it's really important that people can trust the way that artificial intelligence is being used. And the proposal is taking its way, but that leads me to a specific point, also raised about who should enforce. Because yes, we now have legislation for a broader scope of sectors to make sure that they implement cybersecurity measures. We will soon have artificial intelligence rules to make sure that when it's used, when someone is at risk of being discriminated, that these rules are in place. We have the Didgeridoo Markets Act to make sure that the market is open for smaller businesses actually to be successful. We have the Didgeridoo Services Act to make sure that we are not discriminated online if that is forbidden where we live. But having legislation is one thing. Implementing it is another thing. And only when things are fully implemented can people living in regions and in other parts of our union be sure that things are actually in order. And this is why this discussion is so important. Because without enforcement of our rules, people are left without the necessary protection, but also without the necessary possibilities. And I would like to also say a few words about what was mentioned about that more women should be attracted to the digital sector. We have a completely untapped potential of women. As of today, I think 17%, 17% of ICT professionals are women. We would never accept that if that was a democratic assembly. And yet, we are talking about a sector that is to a very large degree shaping our future. So it's really important to do more and also to sort of broaden the idea of what it is to work with technology. I think within the last five years, the 10 jobs where there is most demand of skilled personnel, those 10 jobs that didn't exist five years ago. So this is why the attraction to get people to educate themselves, to make education available is absolutely crucial. I think the points made on health data are sort of the crunch points as to what should be discussed. How can we make sure that the transfer and the use of health data is for the benefit of the citizen and our health systems? Of course, very often with companies as intermediaries or those using the data, but not on there for them to decide. But for those who own the data and for those who need to use the products coming from the data of having a fair say. One of the things that most of you have touched upon is indeed security. And I think it's a fair point that we need to help each other out until we reach a situation where we can recruit the people that we need. Of course, we need to help each other to get the right resources in order to secure the networks, in order to secure the services, in order to secure the different solutions that will be useful in order for people to be well served. We have an idea of how to do that at a European level and of course more than happy to engage also with you, with Member States, with the European level as to how we can make sure that we get the right access to cybersecurity resources. Without those resources, we will hamper the development. And maybe just one point to finalize this. There is a war in Europe. There is an energy crisis. We have a climate crisis to fight with. But what the climate crisis and utilization has in common is that it will happen no matter what we do and we can choose to deal with it or we can choose to not deal with it. And if we choose to deal with it, we can also make the most of it. And one thing is a given. If we do not fight climate change, the livability of our planet will be seriously reduced. If we do not deal with technology, puts it in a democratic framework, makes sure that it serves citizens, well then the world will also be a very different place to live. Because then the risk is that we are all reduced to a data point and not to the human being that how we would like to see ourselves. And sometimes when I think about these sort of worst-case scenarios, I will remember these debates and this conversation. Because I see that there is a willingness which is completely integrated with the culture of this assembly to make sure that when we integrate technology in the solutions that we provide, we do it by putting people first. It has been a pleasure to be here. Thank you very much. Madam Vice President, we are the ones who thank you for taking the time to be with us and to share with us your views about the role of local and regional authorities in the digital age. It's been an honour and a pleasure and I look forward to continue the cooperation between the Committee of the Regions and the European Commission and more precisely your portfolio. Thank you so much.