Humanist Union: Basic services must stay accessible in analog form
The group protests the mandatory e-government digital shift, noting 40% of EU lacks basic digital skills.
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The Humanist Union (HU) is calling for a moratorium "to freeze the ongoing digitalization of basic services at European level". The e-government freeze should apply if corresponding analog services are discontinued at the same time. The pause is necessary to "ensure the maintenance of non-digital communication channels with basic service providers", writes the civil rights organization in an open letter to the EU Commission, the Council of Ministers and the Parliament. What is needed is good availability, for example "of public offices and bank branches with sufficiently long opening hours and well-trained counter staff". Furthermore, analog services should not entail any additional costs for users.
The HU complains in the letter that the use of digital media has become unavoidable when interacting with authorities, banks and energy suppliers - but also when looking for work or accommodation or buying tickets. However, 40 percent of the European population do not have the necessary basic digital skills. This mainly includes older people or those with a low level of education, the unemployed, women, people with disabilities and migrants with a "precarious residence status". The digital difficulties are often added to existing social disadvantages, which leads to a "double burden" for vulnerable people. Consequences could include not claiming social rights, being excluded from banking or losing their energy supply.
Various EU strategies contradict each other
At the same time, the civil rights campaigners point out that the Commission has been obliged since 2011 to ensure compliance with common principles such as universal access and equal treatment when implementing or providing basic services. This task is being "sacrificed today on the altar of digitalization" in order to increasingly automate services. However, this entails the risk of algorithmic discrimination. In the Netherlands and France, thousands of families have been accused of social fraud in this way. The administration has deprived some households of vital income.
In 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also recommended that member states make the transition from "a logic of fully digital public services" to one of "full accessibility" of these services in a directive on the digital divide. This includes retaining analog access. The HU is also calling for a fundamental social debate on the role that digitalization should play.
(vbr)
