A Vision for Digital Europe

Digital platforms have become a part of our everyday life. Not only do they shape large parts of the commercial internet – they also rearrange traditional markets and industries. The road to a platform economy goes hand in hand with a strong concentration of market power. This poses dangers from the perspective of competition and democracy. The platform economy challenges the European economic and social welfare model in other ways as well. There are growing calls for regulation, so that small businesses have a chance on the market, consumers and workers are protected. But how do we tame these powerful platforms? 

In this web seminar we discussed a recent FES study written by Thomas Gegenhuber. The author argues that between the digital capitalism of the United States, driven by shareholder value, and the Chinese variant, which combines technological aptitude with state control, there should be room for an independent European vision: digital humanism. Regulation of platforms is an important first step. To realise a model of digitalisation that has "people at its heart", Europe will have to place digitalisation at the service of values such as equality, democracy and justice. This calls for a differentiated response, as different types of platforms require different regulatory strategies. To tame the platform economy, politicians in Europe must act in a resolute, but differentiated and coordinated manner. What is the vision of digital humanism? How do we reach it? What role do alternative public platforms play? How do we achieve fair competition? And how can it affect Europe’s competitiveness and economic growth?

We organised a seminar on the report "A vision for digital Europe: From the taming of unruly platforms to a new digital humanism" by Thomas Gegenhuber of Leuphana University Lüneburg.

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