The first Republic of Korea (ROK) – European Union (EU) Digital Partnership Council met in Seoul on 30 June 2023. The meeting was co-chaired by the Korean Minister for Science and ICT (MSIT), Dr. Lee Jong-Ho and the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
The ROK-EU Digital Partnership, signed on 28 November 2022, is another sign of our unity in the uncharted times we live in. It is a bold step towards strengthening mutual economic resilience and allows us to project our common vision as strategic like-minded partners for an inclusive, sustainable, human-centric digital transformation at bilateral and multilateral levels in line with key policy frameworks such as the EU’s Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and ROK’s new strategy for a free, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
At the first meeting of the ROK-EU Digital Partnership Council, both sides reaffirmed that implementation is key for the success of the Partnership and took stock of the results achieved in the areas of semiconductors, High Performance Computing (HPC) and Quantum technology, Beyond 5G and 6G, online and digital platforms, Artificial Intelligence, and cybersecurity.
More specifically, on semiconductors, both sides decided to establish a ROK-EU Forum for Semiconductor Researchers that intends to promote research in complementary areas. Research collaboration may be explored under the Chips Joint Undertaking on the EU side, and next-generation semiconductor R&D project on the Korean side
As regards cooperation in High-Performance Computing, both sides expect to explore how to facilitate and enable researchers’ access to respective HPC infrastructures and to jointly develop applications of societal relevance of common interest, for example in the bio- molecular field, extreme weather events forecasting, and materials science. On Quantum technologies, the Digital Partnership Council should establish a Quantum experts Working Group comprising around 10 members from the Republic of Korea and the European Union and organise a kick-off meeting to advance cooperation in standardisation and in research topics such as quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum communications.
Both sides aim at defining a common vision for 6G, including a common approach to 6G standardisation. The Digital Partnership Council envisages that research cooperation should target Radio Access Networks (RAN) and integrated device-network approaches demonstrating 6G functional properties including their standardisation impact. For the EU and the ROK, R&D collaborative activities are to be driven by industrial requirements for topical cooperation with selected partners.
In the field of online & digital platforms, the Republic of Korea and the EU share the conviction that it is important to create a platform ecosystem that harmoniously balances innovation, safety, and fairness. Both sides recognised the interest of cooperating in the implementation of their respective frameworks, the EU platform legislation (Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act) on the EU side and the recently adopted “Self-Regulation for Platforms” on the Korean side. Both sides agreed to pursue the implementation of the Declaration for the Future of the Internet (DFI), which reflects at multilateral level our shared democratic vision and principles for the digital transformation and commitment to engage multi-stakeholder communities around the world in the implementation of such principles.
Both sides intend to discuss their respective definitions of high-risk AI applications and establish a permanent communication channel to regularly update each side on respective legislative and non- legislative frameworks aimed at realising trustworthy AI. The partners further intend to have exchanges on technology developments, such as foundational models and generative AI, to promote human-centred and trustworthy AI and foster collaboration to maximise the benefits of AI, and advance collaborative approaches in international standards bodies related to AI. At the international level, both sides intend to coordinate approaches in the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), e.g. to new member candidates and project proposals.
In the field of cybersecurity, the Republic of Korea and the European Union envisage to enhance information sharing on cybersecurity threats and intend to expand information sharing on cybersecurity policy and explore ways to cooperate.
Both sides stressed that the ROK-EU Digital Partnership is a dynamic, future-proof instrument that can be reviewed in the future taking into account technology developments and changing geopolitical circumstances. Concerning future work, they agreed to exchange information on the semiconductor supply chain between MOTIE and DG CONNECT and to expand bilateral cooperation in new areas such as: i) secure digital connectivity infrastructure links including submarine cables; ii) digital skills and capacity-building; iii) exchange of best practices on digital start-ups.
The co-chairs intend to meet again in early 2024 in Brussels to review progress and initiate new ways to deepen our Partnership.