Ref. Ares(2020)1335408 - 03/03/2020
Microsoft
Corporate, External & Legal Affairs
Rue Montoyer 51 B-1000 Brussels
Mrs Margrethe Vestager
Executive Vice-President for a Europe fit for the Digital Age
European Commission Rue de la Loi 200 B-1049 Brussels
Brussels, 6 December 2019
Dear Executive Vice-President, ·
I would like to extend my sincere congratulations on your appointment as Executive Vice-
President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age of the European Commission.
Microsoft fully supports your objectives for a competitive digital economy, advancing our
shared goals of equality while ensuring an open and fair level-playing field. While sweeping
digital transformation holds great promise to ensure Europe’s competitiveness across many
industries, new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by unprecedented paradigm
shifts in the economy, business, society, and individually.
We believe that companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the
future. Our team has worked hard to support the Commission’s efforts to build an ethical
framework for AI governance across Europe. We believe that some applications or use case
scenarios, such as certain uses of facial recognition technologies, require baseline guardrails to
ensure democratic freedoms continue to prevail in an open society. We hope to continue this
collaboration to share practices and research results to enhance the tools needed, technological
or legal, to put ethical principles into practice.
, and I look forward to discussing these important
issues with you soon. My team has been reaching out to request a meeting either in Brussels on
20 January or during the 2020 World Economic Forum in Davos.
As you are taking up this incredibly important role for leading Europe into the digital age, you
can count on our support to help realize your vision.
I wish you and your team at the European Commission every success. My team will take the
liberty to follow up to coordinate a potential meeting.
Sincerely,
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