Today, High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell convened the Global Tech Panel by video conference for the first time for an informal discussion on new technologies. The meeting brought together leaders from the worlds of technology, civil society and diplomacy to reflect on how to join forces to deal with the opportunities and risks that the world faces as it emerges from the pandemic.
High Representative/Vice-President Borrell said: “The COVID-19 pandemic calls for new types of partnerships and alliances to tackle the threats of the 21st century. We must harness the potential of technology to help us solve global problems. We must use the potential of business and civic engagement to its full extent.”
In the coming months, the members of the Global Tech Panel will work together to explore potential areas of engagement ranging from pandemic recovery to education and security to working with partners in Africa on digital transformation, among others. On this basis, High Representative/Vice-President Borrell will reconvene the Panel again for a meeting in the coming months.
Background
In 2018, the Global Tech Panel was created as a forum for open discussion and practical development of innovative solutions. It focuses specifically on the nexus between tech and common foreign and security policy. The ambition is to build a common understanding of the opportunities and challenges of the digital age, presenting practical suggestions to be shared with policy-makers at top level, all around the world. It also seeks to develop and coordinate concrete initiatives that the EU, tech companies, other tech stakeholders and partners can implement in coalition.
The members of the Global Tech Panel are: Oussama Ammar, Co-Founder, TheFamily; Børge Brende, President and Member of the Managing Board, World Economic Forum; Joy Buolamwini, Founder – Algorithmic Justice League, MIT Media Lab; Solina Chau, Executive Director of Li Ka Shing Foundation and Co-founder of Horizons Ventures; Tom Fletcher, Principal, Hertford College Oxford; Jim Hagemann Snabe, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Siemens AG; Amel Karboul, CEO of the Education Outcomes Fund for Africa and the Middle East; Cassandra Kelly, Tech Entrepreneur, Board Director, Co-Founder and Senior Adviser Pottinger Inc.; Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman of F‐Secure; Emery Simon, Global Vice President for Government and Regulatory Relations, Spotify; Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft Corporation; Megan Smith, CEO, shift7 and former U.S. Chief Technology Officer (2014-2017); Mustafa Suleyman, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Policy at Google, Co-Founder of DeepMind.