The Diplomat
Spain will host the next Ministerial Conference on Digital Economy of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), to be held between December 13 and 16, 2022.
The decision was taken this week by the OECD’s Digital Economy Policy Committee and must be finally approved in February 2022 by the Council of this international organization. The Ministerial Conferences on Digital Economy do not have an assigned periodicity. Only three have been organized so far: in 2016 in Cancun, in 2008 in Seoul and in 1998 in Ottawa. This will therefore be the first Ministerial Conference to be organized in Europe.
The Digital Economy Policy Committee is a specialized formation within the OECD mandated to help coordinate and support national initiatives on digital transformation. The last OECD Recommendation adopted by this Committee was on data access and sharing. The Conference to be held in Spain will address the work done by the OECD on access and reuse of data, digital security, protection of minors in the digital world or connectivity, among others, and will set the international agenda for the coming years in terms of digital economy and society of the Digital Economy Policy Committee.
On the other hand, Spain has also joined the Bureau of the OECD Digital Economy Policy Committee as vice-president and will chair the Bureau for the Ministerial Organization. “Spain’s digital, inclusive and humanistic transformation have positioned it as a benchmark at the international level thanks to the strategic vision of Digital Spain 2025, the sectoral plans and the investments and reforms of the National Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan,” the Government stated. The Digital Bill of Rights “has been a determining factor in the choice of Spain,” it continued.
“Spain wants to encourage in this upcoming meeting an international reflection not only on the new challenges of application and interpretation of the law to the new digital reality, but also on the new pioneering rights that should be demanded, such as those related to Artificial Intelligence or neurotechnologies”, added the Executive.
The OECD is an international intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries. Spain has been a founding member since 1961. The OECD focuses on the analysis of economic and social development, as well as all sectoral policies that influence it, such as social and environmental issues, energy, education, health economics, industrial and service activities, trade, development aid, etc.
