On thursday, januar, 30 2025, on the initiative from the Brussels organisation “lire et ecrire”, together with European civil society, we launches a vast campaign for “essential services must be accessible for all” and “the right to be off-line”.. Its on European level that we need decisions to oblige banks, service providers, public autorities to provide in face-to-face service so that everybody should have access to all essential services.. You can join the campaign by signing the open letter to the European Commission. https://righttooffline.eu/?lang=en
The Campaign is strongly supported by ESO – PES-seniors.
Today, there is a paradox as we witness a European strategy that strongly encourages further digitisation of all kinds of services whilst a digital gap persists digitisation, with over 40% of European citizens unable to use the digital tools and technologies required to access online services.
This situation risks undermining a number of shared EU values regarding essential services such as accessibility, universal access and equal treatment. Many of these shared values were embodied in 2017 through the common adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights, whose principle 20 enshrined the right to access essential services: Everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water, sanitation, energy, transport, financial services and digital communications. Support for access to such services shall be available for those in need.
Therefore the call for guaranted offline access to ensure that no one is excluded by digitalisation.