VVD Europarty on-line

Speech to the occasion of the second EU- Korea Conference
"Information Society and Globalisation"
Barcelona, June 27th, 2003
by Elly Plooij- van Gorsel

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

First let me congratulate our hosts on their inclusion of this special session – Information Society and Globalisation – in the programme of this conference on EU-Korea relations. While this theme may seem of obvious and central importance in EU –Korea relations to those of you deeply engaged in the digital communications revolution, I can assure you, that the broader political issues inherent in it are only just beginning to occupy the priority they deserve among political leaders and leaderships in many parts of the world – including my own.

Moreover, I find it particularly appropriate that we consider this theme here today in an EU-Korea framework. On the one hand, European Union participants can speak with considerable authority on the experience of a significant part of the so-called “developed world” in our efforts to transform ourselves from deeply-rooted industrial societies to information societies, and from largely local to broadly global thinkers and actors. On the other hand, our Korean friends have what can with no exaggeration be described as the world’s most remarkable - and on-going - experience in transforming a so-called “developing country” into a global economic powerhouse and leading 21st century information society.

Finally by way of introduction, let us not overlook the fact that our discussion takes place six months in advance of the first World Information Society Summit, where political leaders at the highest level from around the world will convene to consider many of the issues and ideas before us here today. Indeed, a practical outcome of this meeting could be to suggest ways in which the EU and Korea can intensify our bilateral consultation leading up to WSIS in december in Geneva.

I hope you will have understood from my introductory remarks that I believe the starting point for any fruitful reflection on Information Society and Globalisation is the simple recognition that you can’t have one without the other. Most of you probably find this to be self-evident. But let’s stop for a moment to ask ourselves why it is so.

My answer is that true “globalisation” is about expanding the individual rights, freedoms and capabilities of everybody, everywhere, to interact with each other for whatever purposes they wish, provided of course these purposes are not inimical to public order or the rights, freedoms and capabilities of others. Or to put it in the negative, “globalisation” is not in the first instance about the reorganisation of relations between sovereign states in some intergovernmental or multilateral framework. It is about removing the barriers to individual engagement beyond our native boundaries and borders, which often means getting government out of the way, or at least acting in a new and different way.

This understanding of “globalisation” makes clear, I think, why it is quite literally unimaginable without the tools being created by the digital communications revolution, which we now understand to be the motor force of our embryonic “Information Societies”.

And just as we cannot have “Globalisation” without “Information Society”, so we cannot have “Information Society” without “Globalisation”. These new tools are too powerful, too attractive, too liberating for those who possess them. Who among us is prepared to accept any arbitrary political constraint on who we communicate with ?

This is not of course to say that there are no such constraints, political, economic or social, evident around the world today. To the contrary, not only are there a great many which derive from the past, there are evident and troubling efforts in many parts of the world to create new impediments to the exercise of the individual freedoms which digital communications tools create or enhance. And here I am not just talking about the efforts of non-democratic regimes to control their citizens activities. I am also talking about the threats to individual privacy and liberty posed by many democratic governments in their ideas for enhancing “cyber-security”, as well as many industrial-era constraints on economic freedoms in our countries, originally designed to protect state or other special interests.

By now you will have understood that the fundamental issue I wish to place before this distinguished group today is quintessentially political – which should not surprise you, coming from a politician. Nor should you be surprised that a Dutch Liberal sees this quintessentially political issue as one of individual freedom. How much individual freedom should we have as citizens of Information Society – or as economic actors ? What constraints on our freedoms should we be prepared to accept for the greater common good? Who should decide that, and how?

If you agree that these are the core political issues to which we inevitably must return when we address the theme of Information Society and Globalisation, then I would recommend the following three points for further reflection and discussion here this morning:

1) What can we learn from the EU experience so far, and from the Korean experience ? On that point, let me just offer an initial thought :

+ On the EU side, our major problem has been to de-regulate, or at least re-regulate, in the economic sphere, so as to enable and attract private capital to compete in the development of our digital infrastructures and services. And of course this effort has included progressive liberalisation of our trade relations in ICT sectors with the rest of the world, from which Korean industry has greatly benefited.

+ On the Korean side – and viewed from afar, of course – your major problem appears first to have been to reform your political system. Once that was accomplished, the development of your information society and your embrace of globalisation seems to have exploded.

2) which leads me to my second point : If we add these two experiences together, we seem to cover much of the relevant ground.

3) So my third and last point would be to pursue that idea in the run-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This may sound like an innocent idea, but many of you will realise that it is not. Through the European Internet Foundation, of which I was the founding Chairman and am presently one of the Vice-Chairs, members of the European Parliament have engaged in direct dialogue over the past 8 months with those responsible for the organisation of WSIS. It has become absolutely clear very quickly in these discussions that the fundamental sensitivity surrounding this ambitious exercise is precisely the one I have put before you here today – the issue of individual freedom, which then leads directly to the question lying just under the surface of World Summit on the Information Society WSIS: is democracy a necessary condition for a healthy Information Society ? Moreover, if you agree with me than you cannot have Information Society without Globalisation, and vica versa, then your answer conditions your understanding of globalisation as well.

All this is really to leave you with one fundamental thought : the theme of this session can and should become one of the strategic pillars of the EU-Korea political relationship, not so much for what we can achieve in our strictly bilateral ICT-related dealings, but for the practical ideas we together can help advance around the world. Ideas rooted in an understanding that the dynamics of both the Information society and Globalisation are the dynamics of greater individual freedom.

Ladies and gentlemen, I trust that my remarks will lead to a valuable exchange of views and some practical action points. Thank you for your kind attention.