The European Commission recently released a Declaration for Digital Rights, which doesn’t introduce any new rights, but rather collects in one place all existing rights relevant to the digital age, becoming the reference point for the EU’s idea of a fair and ethical digital environment.

The Declaration therefore complements existing rights, such as data protection, e-privacy, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights through existing or upcoming policy proposals like the AI Act and the Digital Service Act, as well as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The principles and rights in the Declaration will guide the EU and Member States in designing digital rules and regulations.

The Declaration is based on a human-centric approach to the digital transformation focusing on solidarity and inclusion. In people’s everyday life, this should mean, for example, high-speed digital connectivity everywhere and for everybody, digital skills for everyone, seamless access to public services, a safe digital environment, transparency on the environmental impact of our digital products, control over our personal data etc.