The first 5G policymakers' hackathon was held on November 26-27 in Riga, Latvia, during the 5G Techritory Forum. The hackathon brought together participants from businesses, mobile operators, European and national policymakers, and lawyers to map existing policy and develop recommendations for approaches to policy adaptation to support 5G deployment in the Baltic Sea Region. The event was organised by the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia, in cooperation with Electronic Communications Office of Latvia and with the support of the Nordic Council of Ministers, and participation of the European Commission to ensure effective collaboration of required parties to achieve maximum relevance of the hackathon's output.

The reasoning for the hackathon stems from the problem that the legal framework is not yet in place for the successful implementation of 5G technology, as well as the solutions it will make possible. The new generation technology is expected to disrupt society, and the legal framework and infrastructure are required in order to simultaneously provide the necessary checks and balances, as well as enable innovation.

Topics included cross-border travel issues (ex. autonomous car/drone/truck/delivery border crossing), infrastructure issues (ex. Ownership of digital solutions enabling smart cities, GDPR challenges, etc.), development and safety issues (ex. Traffic accident regulation, insurance liability, data access, etc.).

The policy and legal infrastructure improvement recommendations were presented to the Nordic Council of Ministers, who are comprised of digital technology ministers from the Nordic states, and who held in Riga their annual meeting. The recommendations will also be sent to the European Commission, as well as presented to 5G stakeholders (Baltic Sea Region country ministers and company CEOs) participating in the roundtable at the 5G Techritory Forum.