Uniting Europe: How Closing the Digital Divide Between Eastern and Western Europe Will Strengthen the EU
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine destabilized the entire international world order by bringing war back to Europe, but more importantly it has revealed the greater need for stability and unity between Western and Eastern Europe. One method to counteract Putin’s threats and to improve the international standing of the European Union is to close the digital divide between Eastern and Western Europe, thus working to unite the continent, bring technological innovation to regions previously untouched by it, and promoting EU initiatives and popularity. The OECD defines the digital divide as “the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socioeconomic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.” The technological gap also reflects broader socio-economic issues of the impact of Communism.
A Geographical Digital Divide
The history of the digital divide lies in the legacy of the Cold War, a difference in economies, and the devastating impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Technology innovation has defined much of the European Union in the twentieth century. The member states involved have sought to digitize their economies and industries, while also setting the world wide standard for regulations regarding data and privacy. Yet, Eastern European countries, both in and out of the European Union have largely failed to adopt the same technological success of countries such as Germany and Finland.
The root of this issue is an economic one. Eastern European countries tend to be poorer than Western Europe and thus have less financial resources to spend on investing in new technological projects or working to adapt to modern tech innovation. The Cold War deeply impacted Eastern Europe’s ability to adapt to technology. Although the internet boom occurred after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the countries under the Iron Curtain had already been cut off for decades from Western modernity. Despite the Soviet Union heavily promoting science and technology during its reign of power, the eventual weakening of their economy and the larger socio-economic issues of the late eighties prevented the Soviet Union from maintaining their high standards of technological innovation. When integration and trade between East and West finally started, the East was forced to exist in a state of perpetual “catch up” compared with their Western peers.
The European Union has welcomed more and more former Soviet countries into its membership. In 2004 the largest enlargement took place, in which the EU added Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Since 2004 many Eastern European countries now play a role in the EU, but according to a report from the World Bank, they lack “the composition of spending across innovation activities and the allocation across the different types of technologies.” While the EU has attempted to spread its technological incentives throughout all states, the fact remains that some member states are better at adapting and implementing new technology given their stronger economic stability or prior interest in technological advancement.
The COVID-19 Pandemic both worsened the digital divide but also highlighted the need for change. WIth in-person connection no longer a possibility, companies and economies were forced to adapt to a more digitized world, in which many firms moved entirely online. Member states such as Germany proved to adapt more easily to the digitalization required by the conditions of the pandemic and even thrive under it. During the pandemic, the city of Berlin developed the Digital Skills Map (DSM) to promote the sharing of ideas and encourage “pan-EU dialogue around how digital developments are transforming the labor market. It also seeks to showcase the many effective interventions designed to boost digital skills, while giving a local voice to the EU debate around the future of work at the same time.” The success of Berlin and other cities across EU member states proves that there are benefits to the digital shift caused by the pandemic: businesses will no longer struggle to conduct work from peripheral regions, and both consumers and businesses have a better knowledge and understanding of digital tools.
In contrast to Germany’s tech success story during the pandemic, a report from OECD revealed the devastating nature of the digital infrastructure challenges in the Western Balkans. The biggest issues in this region consisted of the low digitalization of households and the limited number of enterprises that were able to employ teleworking. The inability to shift to teleworking and digital work processes meant that businesses were far likelier to experience labor shortages caused by movement restrictions. Now that the pandemic has exposed the digital divide and the need for change, the European Union can actively begin improving digitalization within their Eastern European member states.
Role of the EU
The World Bank’s report on the digital dilemma in Europe reveals that there are three key goals for Europe’s digital future: “competitiveness, market inclusion of small and young firms, and geographic cohesion.” The report explains that for the European Union to achieve these goals they must better invest in the three types of digital technology, which are transactional, informational, and operational. Taking this information into account, the EU must now help member states including Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, and Romania, to properly invest in technology creation and adoption. The report also details the distinction between the three most prominent digital technologies: transactional, informational, and operational. According to the World Bank, transactional technologies, mostly e-commerce related, are the only ones truly capable of achieving the European Union’s goals, due to their ability to bring together all forms of the digital sector.
Bridging the divide between rural and urban areas is key to promoting technological development. Romania’s cities, such as Bucharest, have much higher rates of transactional technology initiatives compared with more rural areas where digitalization barely plays a role in local firms. Specifically targeting rural regions will also benefit the member state as a whole, as it will allow greater investment and collaboration between regions.
The European Union should also work to promote telecommunication policies (policy concerned with the economic regulation of interstate as well as international communication, across the broader region). One way for Eastern European countries to improve digitalization is by driving competition through tech creation, but to do this they need to establish an institutional and legal environment that is ideal for tech development and can guarantee them the support of both public and private investors. Therefore promoting telecommunications policies is the quickest and most effective way to establish stability and legitimacy, thus drawing in external support. Ideally, states such as Poland and Bulgaria would create a telecommunications market with lower costs, greater competition, and a more diverse array of services provided.
The Success of Estonia
Despite many Eastern European member states being decades behind in regards to their Western peers, one nation stands out as an anomaly and example of the success of digitalization. Estonia, a former Soviet republic, has achieved the unthinkable. The nation state has achieved unprecedented digital success thanks to a variety of factors, and serves as a model for all other European Union member states.
The origins of Estonia’s digital success can be traced back to the early nineties when a group of amateur politicians developed a public digital architecture that specifically targeted IT. The goal was to promote IT as a public skill that would improve socio-economic skills nationwide. Estonia built up their digital network through the creation of small networks with dedicated government workers and support from the private sector. The collaboration between both public and private sector proved tremendously in creating a digital state which collaborated effectively. Since all sectors were being digitized at the same time, they were able to rely on each other for support and collaboration, such as the simultaneous development of cybersecurity alongside the online banking sector. Much of Estonia’s success can be attributed to its young politicians who possessed the energy and drive to completely rebuild Estonia, the close networks already in place, and their decision to digitize right as the internet was entering the mainstream world. However, there are still aspects of Estonia’s success story that other countries can copy.
Estonia focused on convincing their citizens of the benefits of digitalization early on by creating digitization projects specifically designed to make their citizens' lives easier; this helped to convince skeptics and united the population. The digital Estonian ID card was launched in 2002 with a digital signature in place to allow citizens to make legally-binding decisions remotely and use their digital signature to easily sign documents. When asked about his country’s success, Chief Information Officer of Estonia, Siim Sikkut, stated that “ Digital leadership needs to be continuous across different administrations. This also involves a deeper understanding of the need to educate not just the wider society, but also government officials behind the transformation.” He also stressed the importance of creating a streamlined and efficient system: “one of the most important factors that helped streamline the government structures, authorities and databases is the once-only-principle which exists to this day. This means that any type of data related to an individual can only be collected by one specific institution, thereby eliminating duplicate data and bureaucracy.” Studying the principle factors behind Estonia’s success reveals that other Eastern European countries must first focus on creating transactional technologies that better their citizens' lives through transparent, cooperative, and efficient digital systems.
The EU’s Future in Eastern Europe
Closing the digital divide between East and West also begs the question: What would a digitally united and equal European Union look like? There are a multitude of ways in which digital cooperation would improve the EU’s status both on the continent and internationally. The end of the digital divide would help unite EU member states and promote the overall stability and success of the European Union. It would ease the burden felt by states such as Germany, Finland, and Estonia, who currently possess strong digitized systems, and allow then to confidently invest in the CEE countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia). The CEE countries do not possess the same economic power and stability of the ‘Big Four (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain) who do not need to rely on digital innovation efforts to promote their economies and international investment. However, greater digital innovation would most certainly draw in international investment which would strengthen Eastern European member states and the EU by extension.
The European Union is considered by many to be the leader in data privacy regulation. The institution has set precedents through its legislation that have created global benchmarks through privacy regulation. Despite angering many American tech companies through their strict enforcement of data protection legislation, the EU has remained firm even in the face of outlash from Google over the Digital Markets Act which prevents Google and Apple from collecting data from different services to offer targeted ads without users’ consent. By demanding data protection of their member states and the outside world, the EU has been able to shape the global standard through its creation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which has become the de facto global network. However, implementing greater digitization efforts in Eastern Europe would also provide the EU to ensure that their data protection regulations are more deeply ingrained throughout the continent and provide more opportunities to demonstrate the norm of implementing data privacy regulations in states with newly developing technologies.
The past decade has severely weakened the European Union. Brexit, a damaged relationship with the US, China’s growing desire for tech domination, and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has damaged the EU’s internal and external reputation as a strong and powerful institution, but by solving the digital divide the EU would show the world the strength of their initiatives and their dedication to improving access to technology for citizens across all member states. Closing the digital divide does more than benefit the CEE countries, it also allows the EU the chance to redefine itself in the face of Russian aggression, Chinese domination, and American tech companies' anger over data privacy regulations.
