The Nordic Council of Ministers has noted the call from the UN to take measures in order to secure the fundamental values of rule of law and democracy in relation to public digitalisation and to consider the growing influence of the tech industry on public administration in the digital welfare states. 

The shared Nordic values of democracy, rule of law and trust between citizens and authorities, should be carried further into the digital age. Therefore, the Nordic Council of Ministers has initiated a pilot project that identify relevant themes and initiatives on the basis of input and information from public authorities and supervisory bodies in Norway, Sweden, The Faeroe Islands, Finland and Denmark.

The team behind the report assesses that there is a need to:

- strengthen the exchange of knowledge regarding investigations, reflections and case law of supervisory bodies in the Nordic and Baltic countries

- identify and analyse the legal framework related to constitutional law and human rights for public sector digitisation, and to evaluate whether present administrative law provides sufficient support for compliance within these parameters

- study the effects of digitisation on governance, control and liability structures in the field of public administration, possibly including the court administration

- investigate the direction of the legislative development, clarify the underlying considerations and interests and assess this development in light of the values of legal certainty and rule of law

- integrate legal research as an element of projects related to public digitisation within Nordic research programmes 

The Nordic Council of Ministers will now consider how it can support using the opportunities offered by digitisation so that they safeguard the shared Nordic values.