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Neelie Kroes n'est pas encore à la retraite...

“Openness and tolerance, hard work and trusting others are my values.”

EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes (Bilderberg 2005-12)

Neelie Kroes is Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, and has attended the Bilderberg conference eight times – every year from 2005. She has long been a champion of openness and transparency, particularly in the digital realm.

When the internet activist Aaron Swartz died, back in January 2013, Kroes was full of praise for his commitment to a more transparent society. On her official European Commission blog she wrote:

“This was a man who saw that greater openness can be good for citizens, and good for society. Hugely disruptive – but hugely beneficial.”

It may be difficult for our social and political institutions to come to terms with greater openness, but doing so is “hugely beneficial” for us all. As Kroes said: “Aaron could see the open direction we’re heading in, and its benefits.”

Blogging from the World Economic Forum, in Davos, at around the same time, Kroes wrote:

“I was impressed also by the speech of Christine Lagarde about why we have to value the new generation and what they bring to improve our world: openness, inclusion and accountability. This is the transparent generation and that is what the world needs right now.”

The keyword in all of the speeches and writings of Commissioner Kroes is “open” – whether it’s “open data”, “open science”, “open education” or an “open internet”. In June 2010 she said:

“I think that openness is a core European value, and one of our strengths, and I do see it as contributing to our ability to innovate.”

And in December 2010, in a speech on ‘Network and information security’, she said: “we should also ensure that we, as governments and public administrations, are as transparent and open as possible.”

She stresses both the economic and the social value of openness. She believes governments should be open with their data, and that an open government is one the people can trust. In a speech entitled ‘From Crisis of Trust to Open Governing’, delivered in March 2012, she says:

“Today’s economic crisis is a testing time for our democracies. Just look at the amount of protests in our streets across Europe. We need to bring back the trust in markets, in governments. Especially for young people who are massively left aside at the moment. One way to create trust is by increasing transparency in government. Citizens will be more confident if they can verify that the people they have elected inform them about what they do and how they do it.”

A transparent government is a trusted government. And, as an EU Commissioner, Neelie Kroes can say with some pride:

“the EU is fully committed to open government and data”.

In October 2012, Kroes explained how information can “empower citizens” and help people “hold their governments to account”. The more open the government, the more accountable it is. And the more accountable, the more trusted:

“We can change the relationship between governments and citizens. Putting public data online is a great example. It means more transparency in government.”

This is her ideal: more openness, more data, more transparency, more accountability. An ideal which she sees alive and well in Europe – as she said in March of this year:

“Europe is a home of democracy, transparency and fundamental rights”.

http://bilderberg2013.co.uk/neelie-kroes/