The dangerous consequences of the Spanish election result
My second collaboration with the US think tank Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) is an article entitled “‘Hung’ Spain threatens EU tech and climate drift” (pdf), in which I try to explain to what extent the outcome of the inconclusive July 22 Spanish elections, which coincided with the beginning of the six-month Spanish presidency of the European Union, may condition issues such as technology and climate policy throughout the 26-member bloc.
A Spanish parliament and government largely focused on negotiating slim majorities with regional parties with very specific and divergent interests — basically, more money and more autonomy — is a very bad situation for a European Union that is obliged, over the next few months, to manage very important challenges such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, regulating artificial intelligence, the security of e-commerce, temporary work, data protection, end-to-end encryption or sharing resources on platforms.
In the article I analyze some of the positions of the main parties in these areas, and I predict a six-month Spanish presidency in which, unfortunately, decision-making on these fundamental issues will be constrained by a government more worried about making deals so as to to stay in power than with the details and needs of the technological landscape or leading the response to the climate emergency. In short, not a good outlook.
(The original CEPA article is here)
(En español, aquí)
