Discussion with MEP Marina Kaljurand, former Estonian Foreign Minister with interests in cybersecurity, transatlantic cooperation and digitalisation on all levels.

What you’ll hear:

• Estonia as an e-nation:  “nobody has so far proved that online voting services are less secure than offline.” Estonia is the only country in the world that gives its citizens rights to vote online.
• The digital revolution has come to stay, smart ones are taking advantage and facing challenges. The majority of international law was written before the IT revolution but still, there are principles that should apply also to the digital cyber and online world.
• For centuries the state was the only one dealing with security (nuclear, chemical and conventional weapons) but cyber is different. The private sector owns critical infrastructure, is providing online services, and has the brightest IT geeks. We are at a stage where the government has to work with others.
• The topic of cybersecurity has come out of the basement. And there are more and more politicians who have overcome the stereotypes and are ready to accept that that's our new reality. We can't escape it. We don't write “internet” with a capital “I” anymore, that's a sign!
• Europe’s investment into R&D: “No regulation is better than bad regulation, and less regulation is better than more regulation”  
• How will transatlantic cooperation change with Biden? “We are natural partners. it's in the European DNA and in the US DNA to cooperate. Yes, we are competitors, like all good neighbours, but it's a positive competition, so I think that together we can be much stronger facing the new challenges, for example coming from China.”
• UN Digital Roadmap: I hope the roadmap will be a push and I hope that at some point we will come to a better organisation for digital cooperation globally. And it has to be on all levels, global, regional, state-to-state. Last year we celebrated 75 years of the UN and for the first time, the declaration included digital cooperation and cybersecurity. The UN security council is still stuck in 1945, it does not reflect today’s international affairs, but that's the only thing we have today
• Will COVID help build trust between sectors?: I would argue that the government has all the tools, all the opportunities to provide that they do care about people and they do bring digital into people's lives with best intentions doing it responsibly and respecting all their fundamental and human rights. The chance is there, whether governments will take advantage or not.

Marina Kaljurand is a member of the European Parliament, served as Estonian Foreign Minister, and Ambassador to several countries, including Russia during the cyber attack on Estonia in 2007 and to the United States, during the 2013 Snowden leak of highly-classified information from the NSA. She has played an important role as expert and negotiator in the accession negotiations of Estonia to the European Union and to the OECD.

Marina is a member of the

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