David SASSOLI, EP President, gives a statement on "Internet as a human right" during a Video Hearing with the Senate of the Italian Republic (Extraordinry Committee for the protection and the promotion of Human Rights). Recorded statement. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Statement by David SASSOLI, EP President on "Internet as a human right" during a video Hearing of the Senate of the Italian Republic (recorded)

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, Thank you President, dear colleagues. In the European Union, we are working towards an economic and social policy based on an idea of ecologically and humanly sustainable society. This is the effort we have tried to make.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, It certainly does not end up with the measures we have taken but given the European institutions in this year of deep crisis strongly committed. We must deal strongly with social inequalities and economic inequalities and respond to the needs of our populations, and our citizens so hard hit by the crisis .

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, Reconstruction will need to strengthen the cohesion of our communities and their capacity for resilience. We need to create virtuous relationships between institutions, citizens and territories so that people are no longer regarded as consumers or users but citizens. Aware citizens who actively contribute to reconstruction.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, This is one of the fundamental conditions for us to get out of the crisis. And it is important to tune this perspective between the European Union and the Member States, the national parliaments so that action will strengthen each other and create multiplier effects and results as soon as possible and long lasting.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, We have seen this year a European Union committed to making certain instruments available to the Member States freely and we understand, and we want to reinforce this idea that the European Union is not only the institutions of Brussels but also national parliaments, national governments and regions, which especially during this period have taken on important functions for the life of our communities .

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, It was already evident that the lack of access to the Internet was one of the main causes of growing inequality between European citizens and is an important form of social marginalization. The pandemic has done nothing but painfully highlight it and in the context of reconstruction we have to take this into account as our priority.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, The lack of access to the Internet not only produces isolation and loneliness but now deeply worships equality in the face of other rights such as access to health care to school at university. And not only with digital has been seen democratizing the very possibility of undertaking the activities that allow us to earn a living as comparatively those who cannot access or access with little quality the network is in a situation of serious unjust inferiority.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, The digital divide is a problem that has very serious consequences as illiteracy had in fact it is not easy to imagine how many fractures are created with an impossibility of access to the network. In this sense the Internet is a tool but also a source of inspiration. Fairness is a structural component of the Internet as we know it.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, In fact it is based on a deeply democratic principle that of net neutrality. As you know, this principle of non-discrimination of the flow on economic or other grounds is a sine qua non element for its functioning.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, The Obama administration pioneered the defense of net neutrality. However, in 2017, the current US administration repealed the rule enshrining it and this circumstance left the European Union in the responsibility of being the highest guarantor in the world. I would say that it is not only an important responsibility to assume, it is above all a force to be put to use, an active component of reconstruction.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, In this context, I would like to say that access to the Internet should be regarded as a new human right. We are beginning to discuss this and we must not only develop initiatives but also find legislative possibilities to regulate this. I believe that the Internet should become a public service, accessible to the whole population as in the case of electricity or other services considered essential.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, A public service that allows not only all people to act on fair circumstances. And in this way also be an active part of the reconstruction. The architecture of the Internet itself, dear colleagues, is based on the idea of distribution, decentralisation of resources, cooperation between active nodes that have autonomy in action, although they are inextricably interconnected.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, This idea of the Network is in a certain way the image of the Europe we want to build. Italy can do a lot about it. As I said on other occasions, in the image of this model with digital as a tool it is possible to create a virtuous bond between institutions, the entrepreneurial and innovative capacity of citizenship in which institutions can bring value and resources, to open digital commons the result of the actions of citizens and citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, And they can in turn feed on this collaboration and achieve greater efficiency. It will thus improve the democratic quality of our facilities. And it will allow at the same time to make sure that citizenship is motor, and is beneficiary at the same time. There is no human right without democratic guarantees. The European Union has the challenge of pioneering and setting an example in the democratisation of the digital world.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, For this reason there must be deep reflection, legislative political action in tune with a digital transition capable of putting people and their rights at the center, implementing protocols and open infrastructure to make technology an opportunity for many and not a privilege for the few.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, The European Union must invest in creating its own alternatives in the management of strategic infrastructures of the future economy: European cloud, Artificial Intelligence, super computers... to be able to build a digital society that respects rights is innovative and allows citizens to have a say, a say in how decisions are made in digital infrastructure.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, This moment when the European Union plans its reconstruction, is the right time, the appropriate time to continue in the direction of defending net neutrality. A democratic digital transition with fundamental freedoms at its core, with internet access as a right.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, Italy has a lot to say about it. Our country has already pioneered digital rights issues, such as the protection of personal data. Even in the case of considering the Internet a public service and a right, Italy has a great experience and can be a significant promoter and not just that.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, Already, we can now direct our digital-related resources in this regard, we can review the protocols of nerve structures in the light of the defense of fundamental rights so that digital is the path to inclusion and fairness.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, I am referring for example to a use of healthcare data, respectful of privacy in which users themselves are the engine of “open science”, in favor of research and improvement of health conditions General.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, In this regard, the European Parliament has defended on numerous occasions that the time has come to establish a European Health Data Area which fully respects the European framework for the protection of data that is focused on patient well-being.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, The Covid 19 crisis highlighted the need to give the European Union a bigger role in the health sector and to seek more innovative digital solutions in this area. This should also result in a greater allocation for the 'Europe for health' programme which Parliament will ask to further fund.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, Another example may be the democratic digitisation of education that does not mean renouncing the great values of human relations in the school in the presence but which indeed strengthens with more agile dynamics and innovative ones that value the great capabilities of new generations and do not restrain them.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, A digitisation of education that is naturally based on democratic values, openness, freedom, opportunity for all and not on the market need for large monopolist players. As we have also said on other occasions equality is not a starting point, it is a result, first and foremost the product of the efforts of citizens and citizens. And institutional intervention must live up to these efforts.

SOUNDBITE (Italian) David SASSOLI, EP President, It must promptly indulge him by consolidating the achievements of greater justice fairness and opportunity for all. I will stop there and of course, wait for your observations and questions. Thank you President.

Statement by David SASSOLI, EP President on "Internet as a human right" during a video Hearing of the Senate of the Italian Republic (recorded)

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