Wissing wants to set up an “Innovation Club” with the digital role models in the Baltic States

Even before his departure, Wissing had said that the three countries were “very innovation-friendly” and relied on digitization for their economic development. “We need that more for the European internal market – especially in times of an impending recession,” says Wissing.

“The idea of ​​such a club is to get us together and prepare a European agenda to show the EU Commission that we are ready to move faster in this area,” Wissing said in a conversation with journalists after meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart Marius Skuodis on Monday.

The Lithuanian capital was the first stop on the five-day trip to the Baltics by the minister, who is responsible for both transport and digital infrastructure.

Germany could benefit from closer cooperation, as the example of Trafi shows: Vilnius was a successful test location for Trafi, the company has now developed the “Jelbi” app for the Berlin transport company, the MVGO platform in Munich, and public transport companies in Estonia, Latvia, Switzerland and Great Britain are among the customers.

Learning from the Baltic States

But the opportunities for Germany to learn from the Baltic States are even greater. Estonia was the first country in the world to allow online voting in parliamentary elections.

Today the country with its 1.4 million inhabitants, around a third of whom live in the capital Tallinn, is almost completely online. More than 95 percent of the population benefit from fast mobile phone technology, which enables reliable Internet access even in rural areas. In no other country in Europe has broadband expansion progressed as far as in Estonia.

Free public hotspots are part of everyday life. Every Estonian citizen has an electronic ID card, the chip card also serves as a driver’s license, train ticket and insurance card. You can even pay with your ID and, of course, do your banking and sign digitally.

Estonia is now a digital state that offers all services online, from land registration to changing addresses or names. Only marriages and divorces are not yet possible online.

Estonia is already keen to pass on what has been learned. Since the end of 2014, foreigners have also been able to participate, at least in part, in this digital revolution. As a pioneer, Estonia offers virtual citizenship. After being checked by the police and border guards, you can get a digital ID card for 100 euros, which makes opening a bank account or registering a company a matter of a few minutes.

The basis for the digitized society is the X-Roads software platform, which combines private and public databases in encrypted form so that all important information about a person or a company can be exchanged between authorities and companies. Finland has now joined the system, and Latvia is also considering doing so.

Germany so far without a clear international digital strategy

Germany, on the other hand, has not yet had a clear international digital strategy, and Wissing’s project is still at an early stage. It was just agreed to set up a working group that could be “the start of such a club,” said Wissing in the presence of Skuodis.

He told Skuodis that he would make the same proposal to the other Baltic states – “and when I get home, there may already be four of us,” says Wissing. The next step would be to talk to France and other like-minded partners about the project.

So far, Germany has not had an international digital strategy, says David Hagebölling, who researches digital foreign policy for the Hasso Plattner Institute and the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Wissing’s ministry wants to develop a plan by the end of 2023.

According to Hagebölling, both the Baltic States and Germany would benefit from closer cooperation. First, there is the economic component: “The markets there are much smaller than the German market; Start-ups in particular would benefit from being able to open up the German market more easily.”

On the other hand, international digital policy has gained in importance worldwide in recent years from a geopolitical point of view. Both NATO and the EU have intensified their cyber defense measures in the Baltic States. “If the cooperation in the digital area with Germany becomes closer, both sides would benefit from it,” Hagebölling is convinced.

Closer cooperation has geopolitical relevance

Even before his trip, Wissing had emphasized that the Baltic states in particular had “warned early on about the Russian threat and have not heard from them for too long. We take their concerns very seriously and together we resist Russian disinformation campaigns and attempts at division.”

The two large infrastructure projects that Wissing visits and in which German companies are involved – the transnational rail project Rail Baltica and the Tallinn cargo port Muuga – are of primarily geopolitical relevance. With them, the Baltic states will be better connected to Germany and Europe.

The three Baltic states are also playing an increasingly important military role due to their close proximity to Russia. At the NATO summit in Madrid last year, it was decided to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank and thus to expand various bases in the Baltic States.

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Wissing, who has meanwhile traveled on to Latvia, is meeting with ministers responsible for transport and digitization in all three Baltic states, as well as with representatives of NATO and the EU’s cyber defence. He will also meet Latvian President Egils Levits in Riga on Wednesday.

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