What does the federal coalition agreement say about digital?

Today, the new Belgian federal government team led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever took the oath of office before King Philip. Earlier, the federal coalition agreement disclosed. What digital and data aspects are reflected in the text?

• For the implementation of the AI Act, the Data Act and the Gigabit Infrastructure Act control and coordination authority will be assigned to the BIPT (and therefore not the Data Protection Authority).
• Within the existing European framework and in consultation with the Data Protection Authority, a Belgian data strategy is being developed that regulates the use, sharing and sale of data. This should lead to a common data market that respects the protection of personal data.
• A cooperation agreement, after approval by the European Commission, will be concluded between the Data Protection Authority and the Flemish Supervisory Commission.
• Regulators should provide clear information on their websites about the application and interpretation of legislation. This should create more legal certainty and ensure that all companies have equal access to it. This will become mandatory for any new legislation from now on. In addition, the possibility to request a prior opinion or "comfort letter" from the regulator or supervisory authority will be introduced. In this way, companies can obtain maximum certainty about the correct implementation of legislation.
• The initiative will be taken to create an electronic, virtual identity card, which can also be used as a travel document and will enjoy the same value as the physical card.
• A sovereign "cloud first strategy" is being implemented, being a data strategy and integral policy on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) so that government operations can improve with efficiency gains as a result.

The minister responsible for 'digitization, privacy and AI' is Vanessa Mats (Les Engagées).