News

Press release – Young Liberal Leaders

”European Liberal Youth asking for a single EU citizen number”

Brussels, October 2020 

Between 18 and 19 September 2020, leaders of young liberal organisations from all over the continent met online to discuss the topics of digitalisation and innovation. Because of COVID, the 2020 YLM organised by ELF (European Liberal Forum) and supported by LYMEC (European Liberal Youth) couldn’t take place in Riga, Latvia as originally planned. Nevertheless, the event made us understand that life must go on. But it won’t go back to business as usual. Our lives will be revolving even more around technology and digital concepts, as we will be trying to restart every aspect of them, from economy to governance and daily activities.

With a more digitalised presence into our everyday lives also comes the demand for availability, safety and perhaps most importantly integrity. As liberals, we believe in innovation and a society in motion that strives for constant development. However, such developments should never compromise with the fundamental values of our ideology. Every citizen’s freedom, rights and integrity must be protected.

In lights of these aspects’ we liberals have during the Young Leaders Meeting shaped a clear set of measures for achieving a digital society without jeopardizing the rights of European citizens.

These measures are framed within two topics: Development of citizen’s online rights and E-government, e-health and reduction of bureaucracy through digitalization.

We believe that as digitalisation swifts through the continent, European and national policy makers must ensure that this development works in favor of the people. Public services such as healthcare, Issues of ID-documents, various registrations and voting rights should be accessible online through the process of shaping and developing E-government. However, as these services become digital, it is equally important that the safety and rights online are secured as well.

For reading more about our proposals please read here below!

“There are two pillars that [the restart after Corona] is being built on: a green restart and we need a digital restart” said Karen Melchior, MEP, Renew Europe

“Covid19 made this year quite difficult, but we also see it as an opportunity to look at how we will organize the world post-Corona”, said Tess Minnens, President of Jong VLD.

Press release by: 

• Iryna Akhmedova, European Youth of Ukraine (EYU), Ukraine
• Tess Minnens, Jong VLD, Belgium
• Eleni Siapikoudi, Young Liberals Greece (YLG), Greece
• Mihai-Gabriel Costea, USR Tineret, Romania
• Gerrit Herrmann, Liberale Hochschulgruppen (LHG), Germany
• Lukas Stravinskas, Lithuanian Liberal Youth, Lithuania
• Markéta Plesníková, Mladé ANO, Czech Republic
• Emīls Dobrājs, Attīstībai Youth, Latvia
• Starri Reynisson, Uppreisn, Iceland
• Alistair Spearing, LYMEC Individual Members’ Section (IMS), Europe

Annexed proposals: 

Therefore, we as young liberal leaders would like to emphasize the importance of the following two topics:

1. Development of citizens’ online rights which would include:

• the consent on giving permission to gather and use the data but including the possibility to receive the service without giving personal data online;
• safe data portability (between the state institutions);
• free and simple (user friendly) withdrawal, removal and change of data (e.g. trans* people suffer a lot);
• clear knowledge on how the data is used and processed;
• no re-selling / usage by uncertain “third party”, only authorised institutions (e.g. police, tax service..);
• proactive position of data users towards protection;
• online platforms to have unified rules or code against hate speech, bias, harassment, discrimination online;
• single citizen number across all the EU

2. E-government, e-health and reduction of bureaucracy through digitalisation should lead to:

• improvement and spreading of e-services;
• enhance online tools and make them more accessible to all ages;
• easy online access to health documents;
• investment on blockchain technologies for government-related information;
• optional online/electronic voting in national, regional and European elections.

Notes to the Editor

About the European Liberal Forum (ELF): ELF is the official political foundation of the ALDE Party. Together with 46 member organisations, they work all over Europe to bring new ideas into the political debate, to provide a platform for discussion, and to empower citizens to make their voices heard.

About LYMEC: European Liberal Youth is a pan-European youth organisation seeking to promote liberal values throughout the EU as the youth organisation of the ALDE Party and the Renew Europe parliamentary group in the European Parliament.

For pictures and videos of the Young Leaders’ Meeting and the Young Liberal Response to the Post-Covid19 Crisis, please consult the press kit.

Please find the livestream of the Young Leaders’ Meeting here for day one with MEP Karen Melchoir and here for day two with Chair of Latvijas attīstībai, Juris Pūce.