The Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Roundtable on the European Democracy Action Plan: A One-Year Bilan, taking stock of this flagship Von der Leyen Commission initiative and looking ahead to the future. Věra Jourová, vice-president for transparency and values at the European Commission, delivered a passionate keynote, outlining the key steps taken – and the road still ahead. Later, Rahaf Harfoush, digital anthropologist, member of France’s Conseil national du numérique, executive director or the Red Thread Institute of Digital Culture and author of Yes We Did: An Insider’s Look at How Social Media Built the Obama Brand; Marisa Jiménez Martín, director of public policy and deputy head of European Union affairs at Meta Platforms, Inc; Claire Mellier, core team at Global Assembly; and Renate Nikolay, head of cabinet for Vice-President Jourová, joined a wide-ranging discussion of the unique role – and special challenge – of avoiding malicious attacks on democratic norms and using digital technology to enhance democracy. Later, Anton’Maria Battesti, head of public policy (France) at Meta Platforms, Inc, and Jonáš Syrovátka, programme manager at the Prague Security Studies Institute, discussed their own experience in fighting misinformation in the Czech Republic and France. The high-level roundtable convened on the eve of the Summit for Democracy, hosted by U.S. President Joseph R. Biden.
Watch the High-Level Roundtable in Full
Visit the European Commission’s website on the European Democracy Action Plan