RECOMMENDATIONS
Strengthening the Nordic-Baltic collaboration
Hanne Marie Motzfeldt
In the following, leading researchers within law and digitalisation from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Denmark present the fundamental characteristics of digitalising their national public administrations from a legal perspective. Except from highlighting themes essential to touch upon in the investigations; the researchers have – in the Nordic-Baltic tradition – been free to examine relevant themes and form their conclusions and recommendations. It has not been considered suitable to bind their research by instructions, let alone by a strict questionnaire, which would hinder their free study and thus the opportunity to explore different – and potentially unexpected - topics and themes from their national arenas.
From different angles, all researchers have recommended strengthening the Nordic-Baltic cooperation regarding sharing experiences and handling challenges related to public digitalisation. The overall conclusion is that the DigiLaw project has uncovered that the Nordic-Baltic countries possess different specialised expertise, and further cooperation and knowledge sharing should be encouraged. For example, Finland is far in handling liability issues in relation to automated decision processes, while the Latvian state administration has extensive experience in the use of virtual assistants (consulting chatbots). Thus, Finland should be able to share experiences on regulating automated decision processes and Latvia in implementing generative AI such as ChatGPT in everyday administration.
Further, the researchers have, in particular, pointed out that :
 | Collaboration centers around the regulatory sandboxes are recommended as the countries will be able to share experiences on how these can be organised most innovatively and efficiently. Initiatives on establishing such a collaboration center should be launched in the near future, as setting national sandboxes will be stipulated by the AI Act. The Norwegian Data Protection Authority might be an interesting and relevant partner as the institution holds considerable experience in sandboxes tailored for responsible AI. |
 | The Nordic and Baltic countries differ from the majority of the EU member states as the Nordic-Baltic countries´ public sectors rank among the most digitalised in the world, and almost all public service and exercise of public authority depend on – assumedly in the light of worsened treats – too vulnerable systems. Therefore, EU information and cybersecurity regulations are inadequate to ensure robust public services and administrations. As information and cybersecurity should not be regarded as issues only relevant to the intelligence services, promoting robustness via coordinated regulatory initiatives in the Nordic-Baltic counties is recommended. |
 | Data sharing, hereunder establishing more extensive sector-specific databases for developing machine learning-based models and other AI systems, can become instrumental in ensuring human rights, e.g. reducing biases against protected groups. Such cross-border collaborations require, however, a stronger focus on harmonisation, particularly in the regulatory terminology, semantics, and data definitions. Further, the researchers have debated whether a Nordic-Baltic Council of Data Ethics is recommendable. Here, pros and cons have led to the DigiLaw project recommending a debate hereon. |
Further, a broader theme has repeated itself in several contexts, as researchers have noticed that the courts are primarily absent concerning the control of digital administration. The Nordic ombudsman institutions seem to take a leading role in ensuring an efficient, citizen-friendly, and compliant digital administration. In connection with the latter, the starting point seems to revolve around the requirements for good governance or the norms of good administration. As the institutions and the legal starting points share common denominators, strengthening the collaboration between the Nordic-Baltic ombudspersons is recommendable, if possible.