Strategic Priority 2: Preserving fair and inclusive democracies

Trust in public institutions is essential for democracies to thrive and fulfil their purpose of serving the common good. For the digitalisation of public administrations to hold its promise of answering citizens’ needs more efficiently and preventing marginalisation, CAIDP Europe will:

  • Call on public authorities to  adopt AI registers covering public procurement to use of AI systems and its termination;

  • Collect best practices and spread awareness about them;

  • Test and advocate for effective remedies, both administrative and judicial. 

Elections and referenda are crucial moments in democracies but only the tip of the iceberg in democracy barometers. To prevent democratic backsliding and ensure a thriving democratic ecosystem, we need to fight against the amplifying effect of AI systems on polarisation and the online spread of disinformation and misinformation in the long run. CAIDP Europe will campaign for democracy (Article 2 Treaty on European Union) to be operationalised as a legal concept by:

  • Plugging it to key rights protected under the EU Charter of Fundamental rights such as freedom of thought, expression, information, right to data protection, non-discrimination and vote;

  • Advocating for a consolidated application of the EU AI Act, the DSA and other relevant EU law provisions with upholding democracy as a transversal guiding principle;

  • Calling on the relevant European and national supervisory authorities to adopt coordinated actionsunder the democracy banner;

  • Participating in civic awareness campaigns against dis- and misinformation;

  • Monitoring and mapping best practices and concerning ones, with various elections in Europe as a test bed;

  • Protecting democracy through strategic litigation, in particular via the EU Representative Actions Directive.

Despite civil society organisations’ concerted action, States have obtained a very concerning carve-out regarding AI used for military, defence or national security purposes in the EU AI Act and the Council of Europe Convention on AI, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law. CAIDP Europe will deploy research, advocacy and advisory activities towards European and national institutions and initiate and contribute in civic awareness campaigns in order to:

  • Ensure that the necessary safeguards for human rights protection are in place in accordance with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and of the European Court of Human Rights;

  • Advocate for States to ban mass surveillance practices such as the use of automated facial recognition or algorithmic profiling;

  • Advocate for the effective enforcement of the prohibitions enshrined in the EU AI Act;

  • Make sure that the national security carve out does not become a slippery slope towards exclusion of all activities led by law enforcement authorities;

  • Monitor any deletions from the list classifying AI systems as high risk and advocate for any necessary additions based on fact-based evidence;

  • Call on states to include a dedicated section in their national AI strategies and elaborate a dedicated AI registry. This is especially relevant as we are witnessing the spread of multi-use of AI.

  • Monitor and spread information about best practices and concerning ones.