On 14 November 2023 the BIPT celebrated its 30th anniversary together with its stakeholders in Autoworld in Brussels.
That evening, under the theme of “Regulatory challenges in a new digital era” the BIPT and its guests looked back on the path the BIPT had already followed, but mainly looked forward to the challenges that lie ahead.
- Jan Eeckhout, Professor of Economics at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, aptly clarified the importance of competition, as explained in his book “The Profit Paradox. How Thriving Firms Threaten the Future of Work”.
- It is a detailed account of the surging market power of a small number of companies, which leads to stifling innovation and ultimately the decrease of economic and social growth.
- Promoting competition is not the only objective. Renate Nikolay, Deputy Director-General of DG Connect of the European Commission, called on regulators, national governments and European bodies to cooperate, so that Europe would stand firm in the digital race.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken a central role in the digital future. Nathalie Smuha is investigating the legal and ethical implications of AI at the KU Leuven and the University of Chicago. She explained how AI will be regulated in Europe.
- Bruno Dumas, Professor at the UNamur Faculty of Computer Science, gave the audience insight into the AI algorithms.
Throughout this theme evening various stakeholders spoke to the audience through video messages:
- Petra De Sutter, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Telecommunication and the Postal Services,
- Mathieu Michel, Secretary of State for Digitisation,
- Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the ITU,
including the stakeholders at the consumer and sector side, by way of:
- Katelijne Exelmans and Paul De Maeyer, Ombudspersons for postal services,
- and Danielle Jacobs, CEO of Beltug.
All speeches and some images can be found on this site.