[Music]
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uh
all right welcome everybody hello uh my
name is tyson barker and i want to
welcome you guys to the
growing the digital economy in central
and eastern europe
session i am delighted to have such a
group
an extremely impressive group of
panelists to discuss this today
because i live in germany i work at the
german council on foreign relations we
talk a lot about digitization in germany
we talk a lot about it in brussels but i
think we are missing a lot of the
perspective from this region
and we have some excellent speakers
today to tackle this
i think everybody is aware that for the
european commission right now
digitization is a very high priority one
of the top two priorities in fact
uh and president usually lion declared
this the digital decade
the commission itself has released
something called the digital compass
which had four points as compasses do
and basically outlined you know what
or excuse me what europe would like to
see happen in the next 10 years and
and those points are digitally
increasing a digitally skilled
population and a highly skilled
digital professional workforce uh secure
and substantial digital infrastructure
is the second the third is digital
transformation of business
and the fourth is digitization of public
sector and of course you have to put
your money where your mouth is and
in this case with the european recovery
package uh europe is planning to do just
that
donating or dedicating 20 of
the uh 750 billion uh dollar european or
euro excuse me euro
european recovery package to this to
this goal
so what we're going to do in this
session is really discuss what this
means and how
central europe plans to play a role in
this digital decade and we have five
excellent panelists with us today
the first is veronica rimsova who is the
deputy
prime minister of slovakia for
investment in infamous
informationalization
she is a member of the slovakian
parliament and has worked for
the european commission prior to that
for 10 years so welcome
miss deputy prime minister thank you
thank you
hello second joining us remotely is
andres soot who is the minister for
entrepreneurship and information
technology
of the republic of estonia which is a
role he has held since january
2021 and he has been a member of
parliament
since 2019. prior to that he had a long
career in banking he was 17 years at the
bank
of estonia including the deputy governor
of the bank responsible for
financial stability and he also worked
for the european stability mechanism
so welcome mr minister sut
pleasure to be here
third we have bastian koritnik who is
the minister of public administration
for the republic of slovenia he is a
former journalist an
editor a lawyer a former teacher and
perhaps most interestingly for this
panel
a founder and of course he will give us
some insight into the
slovenian eu presidency which is
upcoming welcome mr minister thank you
for being here
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fourth we have uh michael froman who is
the vice chairman and president
of strategic growth executive
initiatives
for mastercard and i think well known to
many people in this room
serving in the obama administration from
2013 to 2017
as the u.s trade representative being
president obama's principal advisor on
trade and investment issues
and prior to that worked in the white
house as deputy national security
advisor for international economic
affairs welcome
uh ambassador frohman thanks very much
and finally we have uh jeff bullwinkle
who is the associate general counsel and
director of corporate
external and legal affairs at microsoft
and i think he is something of a
microsoft lifer he's been there for 18
years
uh serving in the asia pacific before
coming to europe
and i think knows you're pretty inside
and out like me
an american working here explaining the
us
and the u.s digital landscape to
europeans and the european digital
landscape to americans
welcome jeff thank you for coming
all right so i want to jump right into
this with a question for
uh the deputy prime minister uh you know
one of the things we
i mentioned was this idea of this
european recovery package
um how is the region how is central and
eastern europe playing into this
what would what would you as uh deputy
prime minister
and central europe like to see come out
of this european recovery package for
digitization
thank you very much uh as we emerge from
covid19 global downturn
we see that rapid recovery boosts are
needed to stabilize
our economic growth and employment
and this can be carried out by a
large-scale
investment in slovakia the circumstances
have been very difficult during the
crisis
and during the crisis we saw that
digital technologies are very essential
in responding to the worldwide crisis we
can speak about education
flexible homework and so on uh
now we are facing the unique opportunity
thanks to the support of the europe
european recovery and resilience
facility
to come out from the biggest challenge
of the 21st
century much stronger and in fact
more competitive the european union has
encouraged
member states to reflect the importance
of
technology solutions of digitalization
trends
in their national menus and slovakia in
slovakia
we prepare a strong digital package
component of the recovery plan
which will bring positive impact on our
society
lifestyle work opportunities as well as
environment
so we placed the digital components
really in the core of our our
recovery plan and uh
our digital computer component is
focusing on four
areas the first one is digital
infrastructure
so to improve digital infrastructure and
connectivity
digital public services cyber security
of course
and this is the transformation of small
and
medium-sized businesses uh
while deploying top digital solutions
across the country
uh the key elements of our reform
are digital economy innovation bringing
notable added value to digital
competitiveness of slovakia
and most important most important
investments will target two domains
we specifically will invest into
increasing our participation in
multi-country projects so we want to
cooperate with other
european and regional partners of the
european union
and to create subsidy schemes to support
a project that develops and implement
top digital technologies
i'm convinced that slovakia will be
reliable partner in terms of
building a stronger europe as far as
the pantemia is concerned kovit 19
pushed
digitization everywhere and
on the national level what we need now
is the
right government action to accelerate
productivity
digitize across all sectors of the
economy and encourage innovation
the central investment in this area is
the subsidy schemes we are creating to
support
research development application of top
digital technologies with the use of
public and business sector and
scientific
research institutions the
technologies that we will support
willing include mainly
high performance computing quantum
technologies
uh artificial intelligence internet of
things and many other
advanced technology and this scheme
also will be the tool to co-finance
projects successful in the european
union
uh directly manage programs such as
horizon digital europe or connecting
europe facility and to
to bring in a national investment so
these are the main plans for
a digital component uh in slovakia
and uh i hope that we can
we can achieve uh real progress in
digital transformation of slovakia
in i would say a few years thank you so
much uh madame prime uh
deputy prime minister uh minister
uh the deputy prime minister mentioned a
lot of different
uh initiatives and you know coming from
germany watching some of the other
countries in the eu
you hear about a lot of these kind of
initiatives but how
are smaller countries including yours in
estonia making sure that they are
embedded in an integrated process that
they are dealing with
multi-country projects and that this
moment of let's say
tech industrial policy doesn't end up
being nationally based
this is a very right angle i think if we
collectively
in europe want to succeed when you
really need to work
but we have a shared one single market
including in digital domain
and if anything what kovid has
demonstrated
we certainly are facing
the most digital year and a half
in in terms of uh i mean throughout the
society
and i think there are a couple of uh
areas where we
we really need to to work upon one
relates to
digital skill set because in estonia we
have already 99
of the public services available uh
online
and so it's it's really a matter of
of access to these services making all
people educated and
even though we have that high
penetration rate we still
have a digital uh skills cap we we need
to close
so we're still 10 15 percent of people
who who for a reason or another
are not the best friends with with a
digital world
so this is where we we see a lot of work
ahead
uh also if we look at the corporate side
when the digitalization is part of
our integral part of a free main
global trends if we talk about digital
digitalization
green transition and also the innovation
drive
and what we push here very strongly is
is really to uh to improve a
collaboration between
the universities and businesses so there
will be more research and development
more applied research so that we can
actually move up the value chain and and
again here i think
the size of the individual country it it
does matter but
but i come back to uh to what i said in
the beginning
we really need to make sure that that
europe
as a whole is functioning without the
borders
uh and relatedly i think uh also deputy
prime minister may mention cyber
security
if we look uh on the amount of funding
uh what we
get into the digital domain uh in in
europe
through different european funds which
is about 130 billion
and this and then we top it up with a
private investment
it's obvious we need heavy uh investment
in
in cyber security otherwise we develop
new services
new products becoming increasingly more
digital
but if we don't top up the investment in
cyber security we will also become
increasingly vulnerable and we see
a fairly rapid rise of of
different type of cyber attacks which
are becoming increasingly sophisticated
uh targeting both public and private
private companies
so these are i think uh important
domains where we we need to
to continue the work before i move on to
uh minister kurt nick
uh minister you mentioned the the
issue of cross-border markets and making
sure that the digital single market is
complete
what grade would you give the digital
signal market in its completion right
now
do you see it is coming we are still i
mean i think we are still fragmented
i mean that's that's obvious i wouldn't
put a specific uh percentage in it but i
mean if you
if you look on the digital services uh
what could be
uh applied across the union
i mean we are not we are not that far
yet and also i think it's
very uneven across the member states
what is the number
of uh digital services available either
in a public domain or in a private
domain
but i think what is really important is
the interoperability of a different
public services so if i'm a citizen of
estonia
we have the secure eid so i would have
an access to public services which are
digital in
in germany or in belgium or in uh in
in slovak republic i think there is a
huge uh
upside in in this process if we if we
can
if we can advance because if we only
develop
our own
states then globally we all will be
small
if we want to be in a leader's position
we need to talk about half a billion
people
or almost half a billion people living
in europe uh
being the most digital uh most
innovative uh
and also open open for talent uh open
for business
i think these are important domains
regardless of the size
of individual country and if we look i
mean we have seven unicorns
in estonia none of them would actually
be come to existence if they would have
targeted only
the market of estonia so with this
global uh
ambition and uh and again hepatitis to
take risk i think these are important
factors
seven unicorns in estonia is definitely
an enviable number for a country
uh the size of estonia i i think all
european even germany i think or france
would wish they had seven unicorns
frankly
um minister uh koritnik uh
slovenia is about to take over uh the
leadership of this uh half a billion
person block lots of consumers
what are the european council presidency
priorities for slovenia
in the digital and tech space
thank you very much for for the question
and the opportunity to
be here among renowned experts
and colleagues our presidency strongly
uh supports digitalization and digital
transformation of the society
and of course the development of
advanced technologies
uh the intensive process of digital
transformation for companies
to be fit for the fourth industrial
revolution
should support the implementation of
advanced technologies
artificial intelligence big data
internet of things and of course
blockchain
digitalization for me is uh mere
technology and techniques
but digital transformation is changing
the culture
and embeds the digitalization if we want
to succeed
we should firstly build trust and
digitization
with a safe environment for citizens and
businesses
ensure the availability of digital
infrastructure and services
also the construction of high-speed
broadband and 5g networks
needs to be accelerated thirdly
ensure accessibility of infrastructure
and services
enhance digital competences
the education system needs to be adapted
to include the comprehensive development
of digital competences digital skills
should also be made available to people
in the third age people with
disabilities
and those who are not digitally skilled
we should
live like said on several occasions
no one behind in the eu level
we have several financial supporting
mechanisms for implementing
new technologies recovery and resilience
plan is the most recent one
and it offers several options to finance
the technologies like 5g
blockchain ai for instance
slovenia is included in three
cross-border multi-country projects
uh one is euro cloud so european common
data infrastructure and services
uh european blockchain service
infrastructure and the third is
project on common european interest
semiconductors
and microchips thank you
all right thank you mr minister uh
ambassador froman
the minister mentioned some some
cross-border projects that uh
that slovenia is currently engaged in in
three areas that i think are of great
interest to europe right now for its
geostrategic competitiveness
and its positioning for the future uh
cloud blockchain
and and uh semiconductors and we just
had this week uh
president biden make his first trip to
uh
to europe had a the first u.s eu summit
since 2014 since i believe you were in
in in office at ustr uh what is your
assessment of how the united states can
play a role
in the digitization of central and
eastern europe and also of europe
in its in its totality and how do you
assess the the launch of this new trade
and tech council
well i think it's a very positive move
to bring
us together across the atlantic
like-minded countries to look at
the issues around data and and
technology
and we won't agree on everything but i
think we're actually going to be
end up being much closer to our each
other's perspectives
than we are to alternative perspectives
that are out there and so
you saw the g7 they announced a future
tech forum and
as you've mentioned the us eu the
technology council
those are good mechanisms to really
address these issues like
privacy data flows sovereignty
and making sure that we're working
together i'd say as well
it's not just an issue for governments
it's an issue for the private sector
and there's a lot of work we can do
we're working with about 100 governments
around the world
including through digital country
partnerships to
introduce technology help them with
their data strategies
figure out how to benefit make sure that
the digital
transformation that's happening benefits
the society particularly
i would say small businesses who you
know in the context of covid we all
learn
just how critical it is to be part of
the digital economy whether you're an
individual
getting a disbursement from your
government or a small business needing
to stay in touch with your customers
and suppliers and so we've been working
with with
governments from france the czech
republic elsewhere
in europe to see how to prepare
smes for the digital economy and make
sure they've got
the tools the training the access
necessary to take advantage
of the opportunities that that provides
so i think it's a public issue it's a
private sector issue and really where
public-private partnerships
can come together to help this
transformation
succeed as the previous speakers
mentioned it's going to be
to the benefit of the european public
and european business sector
i mean that's definitely something that
we saw in this this coveted time the
great accelerator i mean there was a lot
of adoption of
of digital solutions by companies large
and small
jeff one of the goals of the digital
compass is to have
75 percent of european companies using
cloud and edge technology by
uh 2030 and of course most of those
companies are smes we saw a major
adoption uh acceleration boom in the
covid
period but there's also a lot of
ambivalence because there was this
idea that a lot of that adoption was to
the benefit of non-european companies
how can a company like microsoft
make europe governments and publics feel
comfortable with
the relationship the interdependence of
u.s and european companies on each other
well picking up on uh michael froman's
comment on your question
tess i would say there has been a
massive acceleration of technology
adoption uh satya nadella our ceo likes
to say that there was
two years of innovation effectively in
two months and that may well be
an understatement and that i think for
us that microsoft reinforced a couple of
things that
were important one really is the
importance of digital skills
as the deputy prime minister mentioned
to the other ministers and so we
did focus on that and how we could
contribute that in that area
about a year plus ago as the pandemic
really began to take hold we committed
to
train 25 million people around the world
within a year
in digital skills in a variety of
different ways focusing on
free training materials but also reduced
discounted certifications uh with
microsoft technologies and i'm pleased
that
after about a year plus we hit 42
million people
actually across the world 2.3 million or
so here
in the region so that's one area where a
lot has been done a lot more has to be
done if it's going to be opportunity
and to your point in relation to how
technology can be used to facilitate
growth to the european
level we very much focused on what's top
of mind as people embrace more cloud
services that has been
privacy it has been security it has been
data sovereignty defined to mean
different things by different people and
that does get to this question
of uh the position of american
technology companies relative to
european technology
companies we have very much focused on
what president ursula vonder lyon has
said
when she talks about the need for uh
europe fit for the digital age and for
us that means uh
technology fit for europe so how do we
facilitate growth
and innovation within the local european
technology
economy one of the ways we've tried to
do that is to respect
european values and expectations around
sovereignty and one of those
expectations increasingly
is that data remains within the european
union
and so just about a month ago in fact we
announced what we call
uh essentially an eu data boundary for
the microsoft cloud
which is a commitment by microsoft that
all data is going to be stored and
processed within the european union and
as a technology uh
company we are most of all platform
provider uh
allowing companies here in europe who
want to have their data also within the
european union to build upon
our platform and we're excited about
that development but equally we do live
in a global economy after all and the
internet is
global in nature so we need to find ways
to make sure that data can flow across
borders within europe but also outside
of europe too
and as as ambassador froman uh we're
very encouraged to see what has been
happening in the context of this most
recent visit between
the body administration and and folks
here within the european union
that was an excellent way to start to
open it up for questions
uh great opening statements from our
speakers if you do have any questions
please use the slido app or
we have an audience here in the room we
will also take questions in the good
old-fashioned way of you asking the
question in person
but i'm going to kick it off with a
little bit of discussion with the group
because everybody's kind of put a lot of
things on the table
and one of the things that was raised by
jeff bullwinkle was this issue of
digital sovereignty
and i'm very interested to know how
central europe sees this concept of
digital sovereignty and where they see
their position
when it's formulated in in in brussels
for example
so minister how does how does estonia
interpret
the term digital sovereignty is it a
positive is it a negative where do you
where is estonia placed in that
this is something what uh what we
certainly need
and so we are all part of a process in
defining
what we mean by digital sovereignty uh
that is uh obviously important and and
for us
of course uh it means that we we
we focus really on on the level playing
field
we we will remain and be open as a
trading block
and and i think it's also important uh
if we talk about uh the possibilities
for
uh for our own companies particularly
smes
that they have uh reasonable access to
different services and platforms
so that that they can equally compete in
in the global market but for me digital
sovereignty is not really building the
walls i mean it is about
agreeing globally uh what is uh
what are the rules of the game and and
then uh sticking to
to the rules and uh and of course
protecting
those who play by the rules and keeping
keeping away
those who actually want to play by a
different
rulebook so but it is again something
what we
we we work jointly in europe regardless
of which corner of the
union we come from so digital
sovereignty
is is playing by the rules um of course
europe is in the process of drafting a
pretty comprehensive rulebook right now
how jeff how does microsoft see uh
this idea of digital sovereignty is just
is is playing by the rules and and
keeping a level playing field
well first of all we are i guess a
technology company that
perhaps before some others uh recognize
just how important it is for there to be
more regulation in the area of cloud
services
that's true in relation to ai for
instance and we were
early in calling for regulation in that
space because after all there does need
to be
some sort of form of a fuel regulatory
floor to avoid
a race to the bottom and so we're
watching obviously very close to what's
happening in process as well around
the dma and dsa and dora and so on and
but here too we're seeing i think a
trend toward regulation that's going to
be
balanced and really appropriate in the
context of
um what i think are shared values across
the atlantic and i do think it's helpful
in a forum like this
building upon some of the statements we
heard earlier yesterday and even over
dinner last night
i think about what can be done in the
context of transatlantic relations in
terms of a digital
alliance because as was said by one of
the previous speakers there's more in
common
than than not in this respect and are
there things in fact we can do
together to reach more regulatory
cohesion
in the context of democratic values
western values european values and we
certainly focus on that
at microsoft as well
so if if microsoft sees
its role in in just adhering to the
rules in in and
also helped shape this process is that
something that
uh where does central europe play
in that because a lot of these rules are
taking place in in brussels
um minister uh kariza how are you
planning on integrating
more companies into uh setting an agenda
for the slovenian presidency
and how are you planning on making this
this rule book setting
uh part of the priority that will take
place in the next
six months
thank you when it comes to the european
single market
it is crucial to use the development
opportunities
of ict and the internet to accelerate
the development
of the digital society and to make life
easier for people and businesses
therefore digital transformation digital
technologies and cyber security will
be the priorities of the eu presidency
when it comes to
fostering a european single market this
includes
improving connectivity developing secure
and efficient digital infrastructure
including 5g
safe and open web and cyberspace
resilience to cyber and hybrid threats
improving digital skills i already
mentioned
accessible digital public services and
creating a favorable
environment for the development testing
and use of new technologies
we will focus on several legislative
acts and
strive to reach as much progress as
possible
in the council regarding artificial
intelligence act
data governance act digital services and
markets package
was already mentioned by my colleagues
roaming regulation is also important
because it's something that
it's the most tangible thing for a
european citizens and of course the
directive on
measures for a higher common level of
cybersecurity across the union
uh the so-called nis ii directive
um for example regarding
ai it is crucial to create a high level
of trust
in ai and in order to do this ai should
be developed and used in a way that is
responsible focused on common interests
and on people
ai is means not an end and we all know
that it offers
immense potential in health transport
energy agriculture tourism or cyber
security
but what it's important uh the new rules
should be applied directly in the same
way across all
member states and this is how we create
unified and
trustworthy uh environment uh
not forget we should also focus on
digital skills
to fill the competence gap um
regarding data which is closely
connected to ai
we should by all means better exploit
the potential of data
and data should be used as a key
resource for startups
small and medium-sized enterprises and
for the development of their
products and services we should focus on
the flow of data within the eu
and across sectors in line with
clear fair rules for their access
storage and reuse
of course regarding the digital services
and markets package
our aim what we should do is to prevent
the exposure of citizens
to increasing risks and harmful
consequences online
and the control over large platforms
should be more efficient to prevent
abuse
of their systems so we should
enhance cooperation among public
authorities to ensure effective
enforcement
across the single market what we
shouldn't forget
is related to all the uh the files the
cyber security
and we will pay special attention to
strengthening the
cyber resilience of critical
infrastructure and the
digital single market in the event of a
possible
large-scale cyber attack so
you bring up this issue of a lot of
different new threats emerging threats
cyber threats that the european union is
going to have to confront we're seeing a
lot of
new types of attacks very prominent in
the united states for example around
ransomware
uh the pipeline attack on colonial uh
meat processing etc
i have a question for ambassador frohman
in this in this area
um it's kind of a lateral question on
cryptocurrencies which is
do you consider cryptocurrencies a
threat to national controlled
or uh regulated economies and let's take
it even a step further to national
security
well cryptocurrencies uh cover a lot of
different
ideas um uh there are stable coins there
are central bank digital currencies
uh being being explored i think
to take a step back i think the
blockchain
offers enormous opportunity uh for
innovation
uh across payments and across a lot of
other areas
as well and our perspective is is that
there may be a
role for digital currencies if
they provide first of all if they're
completely consistent with
the regulatory framework if they provide
consumer value and if there's a level
playing field so a variety of players
can play
uh in it in the competitive uh fashion
we're working with central banks all
over the world we created a sandbox for
them to
experiment with regulations with regard
to digital uh
currencies and i think it's too early to
tell exactly how this is going to
evolve um but there's certainly going to
be a lot of innovation
uh in this area can i just say something
on the previous comments uh
though if you don't mind i i think it
points out a really interesting
set of questions to explore clearly the
eu has been at the lead when it comes to
privacy regulation and gdpr is being now
applied elsewhere around the world by
companies and
adopted by other governments in some
form in some form or another
and there's absolutely legitimate
privacy concerns but finding
the right balance between protecting
individual privacy
and private information personal
information and the benefits
of cross-border data flows and i'll just
give you two examples
i think it's pretty clear to people that
we would not have had as much progress
as we've had in developing
vaccines for covet if you couldn't share
data across
borders and similarly all the discussion
we've just had about cyber security
because we see transactions all over the
world
and we see it we're a trust network we
can identify
cyber attacks patterns that emerge in
ukraine philippines uh nigeria
and we've saved tens of billions of
dollars for countries by
making sure that we've identified with
ai these cyber security threats and fix
them if you have national clouds uh
balkanized internet
you run the risk of not being able to
make those kinds of judgments
and so we just have to make sure we're
finding ways of addressing
privacy other legitimate uh
regulatory needs but not throwing the
baby out with the bath water so to speak
and losing the benefits of an open
digital economy including around
innovation
and around cyber security at deputy
prime minister
ambassador frohman brings up a key point
in the tension between the u.s and
europe
which is the question around data
privacy and how it should be dealt with
and respected
how does slovakia see
this this privacy debate how does
slovakia see the implementation of gdpr
is this something that stifles
innovation or is this something that
enhances
uh slovakian and european
competitiveness
it's true that european union is the
champion
of regulation that's true
and i think that we should boost also
innovation because the
the most
innovative firms and enterprises are
either
today in the united states or china
so i think that it is really very
important to find
a proper balance between regulation
and innovation boost as far as gdpr is
concerned in slovakia
we saw that i don't want to say
problems with gdpr but it was
with some of the digital covet solutions
gdpr
was real real
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real problem because we wanted to find
for example tracking of covet
positive patients without breaking gdpr
europe and gdpr rules but at the same
time
i think yes that the balance between
consumer privacy and
rights of consumer is very important
just let me mention uh for um
you spoke about critical independence
in um or independence of critical
infrastructure
in the european union i want just to
mention
one initiative you saw a wonderful
presentation i think of mr danilock
about the tachyon uh microchip so in
slovakia
uh we just our ambition is to to build
a new supercomputer and that will be one
of the europe's
fastest computer system and we have a
close partnership between
business academia and we want it
we want to encourage a building system
with theoretical computing power up to
520 petaflops that could offer this
uh capacity to research institutions
small and medium-sized enterprises
just to boost independence of
uh critical infrastructure in slovakia
so this is very
important uh for slovakia and
to build a ecosystem uh innovative
ecosystem
around the around the supercomputer
minister kiritnik we have a question
from the audience that uh
it touches on some of this let's say the
transatlantic atmospherics that we have
been talking about and it's
is it possible for tech companies to
grow in central and eastern europe
without getting acquired by large
mostly u.s companies is there room to
grow
and maybe we can add uh chinese
companies because clearly there is a
higher presence now with
with ali cloud alipay uh tiktok
all coming into the european uh market
space
um what is the room for european
companies to grow without being acquired
by
by external actors
oh thank you for the question which is
sorry so
please oh you mentioned i'm about to
answer it okay
well uh indeed it's not the field i
cover within the ministry
but regarding my previous experience i
would always say it's a
choice for the owner uh for the for the
founder
to decide to be acquired or not it's
his free will and his uh let's say
estimation of how his company his child
could his startup would grow better
um keeping it for for himself or
selling or allowing a foreign investor
to come in
regardless of what flag
the investor carries so that's why let's
say previous experience
answer but of course i would als always
as a a politician in an eu member state
say that uh of course they can grow
but we are we will try to make the
environment better so they can grow
better
that's a political answer that is
obviously a very
laissez-faire answer very open answer uh
open market
answer but we're in a moment right now
where there's a lot more scrutiny of
investment right we're in a moment where
there's a lot more consideration
around mergers and acquisitions and what
that could mean for the strength of
indigenous economies
uh minister ramisova you you i know you
had a response to this
is this something that europe needs to
take more seriously external actors
looking to acquire
let's say the crown jewels of european
innovation
of course the ambition of europe and of
european union
and the member states should be to keep
the intellectual property
here in slovakia that's when i s
when i said that uh we want to as a
state
slovakia we want to build a partnership
uh with the academia with the business
uh
uh for not only for super computing but
also for other
initiatives like blockchain initiative
or digital innovation hubs
which are exactly the partnership
between
tech firms and between state
and the second thing which was already
mentioned is
regulation i think that we should
make a regulatory framework
innovation friendly and this is the role
for the european union but only for
individual member states
to make a regulatory framework
innovation friendly
ambassador froman when you look at this
regulation that is coming down the
pipeline i can say
we did an event at the german council
for relations last week with the
chair of the national security
commission on artificial intelligence
eric schmidt and he was asked what he
thought about the ai regulation and he
called it a disaster
what do you think when you look at this
new
raft of regulation coming down the pike
and what you think will be its impact on
innovation
do you think it is innovation friendly
as the deputy prime minister would like
it to be
well it's a great question and i haven't
delved into the details of all the
regulations but i think the deputy prime
minister really put it right which is
uh the eu excels at
issuing uh regulations and i think
what's
really important is that there be enough
transparency
and input from a wide range of
stakeholders whether it's
civil society private sector other
governments
as as they form these regulations just
so they get the benefit
of all the input to understand more
fully
what impact it could have on innovation
as the deputy prime minister
laid out much of the innovation in this
sector is happening
outside of the european union you have
to ask yourself why
and this is an opportunity to ensure
that even as
very legitimate issues get addressed
through regulation
it's not further delaying or further
impeding
an innovative ecosystem in europe
because europe has a tremendous amount
that it can contribute
to this area it but it does need the
enabling environment to do so
minister one of the things that people
always mention when they talk about
innovation in europe is europe has a lot
of amazing innovation but it's not being
commercialized
that the commercialization is happening
outside of europe great things are
happening from the mp3 player to the
computer
but the the companies that are turning
this into profitable
uh enterprises are elsewhere how
can europe bridge that gap how can it
bridge that commercialization gap
yes well now i i'm in a bit of
difficulty in which way i'm siding
because um if i look on a stone an
example
and we are part of all the eu regulation
and we've been able to to grow here
seven unicorns uh there is a lot of
innovation what is happening
uh i think uh maybe we are sometimes too
humble
uh in uh in talking about uh
where we have excelled and where we have
been
very competitive uh in and in that sense
uh i think we um
where we can we can and shoot tomorrow
is precisely
to creating one single market and i very
much agree with the points on the data
flows
cross-border because that is really what
we need for innovation
but otherwise i i think
i don't see it in in
in red talk colors i would i would
rather put it differently i mean it's uh
it it's we have lots of opportunities if
we can
if we can make a single market uh in
digital domain truly working
and then there is i mean we we we all
know that
there is also significant repositioning
globally
in terms of uh strategic industries
uh strategic value chains and supply
chains
and we need to be attractive for uh
as an investment destination yes
there are many regulations but
regulations are increasing uh
also i think in other places and that's
not really
kind of common european or only european
topic and also when i mentioned there
was a topic about or a question about
investment screening i mean in my
previous
positions i had to deal a lot with
with financial industry and in financial
industry there has always been a
screening
about the management about the owners of
the banks or other financial
institutions so that they are beaten
proper
i think what has happened with the
digitalization uh that there have been
number
other critical infrastructures and
critical industries which
need comparable screening it's not that
we prevent
innovation to uh to develop or prevent
companies away but it's more to make
sure that this system is
reliable it is transparent and it is
it is safe and i wouldn't really be
concerned if somebody wants to invest in
the companies who have been invented in
europe i think that actually is a
positive
positive dimension so
i think we should be more upbeat glass
is never half empty for europe it's
always half full
at least glass is always half full i'm
going to ask one
final question to everybody on the panel
one sentence
we're half foot we've got a glass half
full we want to get it awful
completely full we're looking at the
digital compass this has a lot of
objectives looking towards 2030.
um if you could name one thing where you
would like europe to exceed
its objectives where europe should be a
leader where europe is
creating a framework for innovation
where europe is
inspiring other countries the united
states china et cetera
in the field of technology what would
you like to be
kind of the headline in the digital
compass in 2030
looking back so in 2030
in one sentence uh looking back
you know europe is is the hub for
fintech
or europe is the hub for uh i.t
professionals
what would that one thing be one
sentence
deputy prime minister you're first
up for
well i'm always coming up from national
context so i would say super computing
yes and at the same time i think
we set path or standards for
ethic for example for artificial
intelligence which is very important
uh it's not the same as a regulatory
framework
but setting up regulat ethical standards
for for all the digital innovation
in the world so i think this two parts
are very important
perfect uh ambassador sut minister said
excuse me yes
i think it is about data
it's about protecting their
the values when processing and
using data for innovation because this
is where the value is going to be
created
i think that would be the most single
important
factor determining uh how competitive we
are
minister karitnik what is your sentence
well uh determining harnessing the many
opportunities
addressing challenges in a future proof
sustainable manner
perfect ambassador frohman looking
across the ocean what do you want to see
in 10 years
i'd love to see europe as the hub of
innovation
at the nexus of digital transformation
and the green economy that sounds
perfect for us
on the line i think she'd appreciate
that uh jeff bulwinkel
what do you think echoing what others
have said i'd also say that europe can
be and should be a center of innovation
built upon leveraging
data effectively in the context of the
world of artificial intelligence where
regulation need not be antithetical to
innovation
perfect all right i i see a europe in
2030 that is a data leader
a moral leader a super computing leader
and a green tech leader
i want to thank our panelists i think if
we can get to that europe will have done
our jobs
thank you so much everybody for
participating and thank you guys for
watching
let's give them a round of applause
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you