In mid-September, during the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her State of the Union address (SOTEU).
Reflecting on the key takeaways from the SOTEU speech regarding health and innovations, MEP Alex Agius Saliba (Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Malta) said: “We had good choreography for the State of the Union, a lot of buzzwords, but at the same time, when you look at the real commitments and the tangible commitments, they are lacking.”
Assessing Europe’s current position, he said there had been good initiatives, such as the KIDS Act, and that their political group had been pushing forward to establish a minimum age for minors accessing platforms, as well as parental controls for those between 13 and 15 years old.
The MEP thinks that, although the legislative initiatives are going in the right direction, the KIDS Act is just a small portion of the broader Digital Fairness Act that was promised last year.
He mentioned problems related to the addictive designs of platforms, which encourage endless scrolling and impact the mental health not only of children, but also of their parents and young people.
“You cannot protect the minors from the addictive ecosystem if their parents are also addicted to social media. So that is why we wanted a broader digital Fairness Act.”
He also mentioned challenges such as dark patterns and online content, which, according to Alex Agius Saliba, create challenges where consumers are being fed and bombarded with content in a way that will influence their behaviour.
According to him, more tangible solutions addressing “bread and butter issues” should be presented.
Talking about initiatives that will be particularly important when it comes to health innovation, MEP Alex Agius Saliba said there had been a strong focus on AI, which he viewed positively. However, apart from panels of experts and discussions with experts, there were no tangible solutions.
The MEP warned that Europe cannot rely on importing AI systems from outside the continent, and that AI should be built on EU values and must be ethical.
“It is of utmost importance to reach also resilience when it comes to AI, infrastructure. And there were some good narrative from the Commission,” he said. But again, he said deliverables were not visible.
Talking about tech sovereignty in innovation, he said: “What I always vouch for, and what I truly believe, is that in Europe we have the best innovators. We have the best R&D.”
However, when it comes to scaling, he said it is a challenge and a problem, particularly because of buy-outs from other continents.
He is convinced that Europe needs to invest in and maintain “the right talent”; otherwise, “we will remain circling in the same position that we are in today.”
