The European Committee on Democracy and Governance (CDDG) held its 12th plenary session on 25-27 November 2020, by videoconference.
The CDDG approved a report illustrating how Council of Europe member States have continued to deliver democratic governance while responding to the unprecedented health emergency created by the Covid-19. The report is based on contributions by members of the CDDG which can also be found on the dedicated Covid-19 webpage. The CDDG discussed a draft study on the impact of digital transformation, including artificial intelligence and automated decision making, on democracy and governance.
In the context of its activities aimed at promoting democratic governance through shared experience, the Committee held exchanges of views with Mr Markus Richter, State Secretary and Federal Commissioner for Information Technology, Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, Germany; Mr Jari Partanen, State Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Finland; and Mr Jàn Lazar, State Secretary, Ministry of the Interior, Slovak Republic.
The CDDG also took stock of the activities of the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance and discussed the new toolkits on “Emergency resilience and preparedness” and “teleworking in the public sector” which the Centre is currently developing. It will examined the first annual report of the Elections and Civil Society Division.
Finally, the CDDG held exchanges of views with Mr Andreas Kiefer, Secretary General of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, and Ambassador Rasmus Lumi, Permanent Representative of Estonia to the Council of Europe, Thematic Coordinator on Information Policy (TC-INF) of the Ministers' Deputies, amongst others.
