On 25 February, at the 11th Meeting of the Commission for Economic Policy (ECON), ECR First Vice-President and ECR Coordinator for the ECON Commission, Rob Jonkman, took the floor to raise several points, including the issue of fundamental rights in the face of increasing digitalisation. Mr Jonkman, Alderman for Opsterland, pointed out that there is a broader concern beyond digital education as many local governments' resources are gradually digitalised: "For our citizens, digitisation is very important. However, many basic services are now only available online, and many of our most vulnerable citizens do not have the digital literacy to access them." Mr Jonkman called for fundamental rights to be considered when discussing the increasing pace of digitisation and stated that digital resources, especially of local and regional authorities, must be made easily available for those who have difficulties accessing them. 

Mr Jonkman also spoke in the debate on the opinion on "The EU economy after COVID-19: implications for economic governance". Mr Jonkman explained that the current EU economic governance framework needs to be reformed to revitalise public investments and called for an active engagement of local and regional authorities in these reforms. He also referred to the importance of consulting local and regional authorities throughout the European Semester process: "The implementation of half of the country specific recommendations mentioned in the European Semester require local and regional authorities' actions, but we are not involved in drafting the recommendations. We should be properly consulted.” Mr Jonkman also expressed concerns that the opinion advocates for qualified majority voting regarding decision making in taxation: "We need to maintain unanimity voting in taxation matters. Taxation is a prerogative of the Member States and we should not allow a system based on a one-size fits all solution.”