30/01/2009 Session
In a debate on electronic democracy, based on a report by Zoltán Szabó (Hungary, SOC), PACE pointed out that "e-tools may be highly instrumental in strengthening traditional representative democracy and in contributing to the improvement of its quality", while at the same time pointing to the potential risks posed for democracy by the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as unequal access and possible misuse.
In order to have safeguards to protect citizens, PACE called on national parliaments and their members to "review national legislation with a view to introducing legal standards for using e-tools in the political process, and to eliminate the risks of their misuse, both technical and political, notably as regards human rights and security issues".