Citizens' Dialogue online in Czechia with Vice-President Věra Jourová

Citizens are at the steering wheel and they will decide which way this vehicle called society goes

Vera Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission

On 10 December Vice-President Věra Jourová took part in an online debate on the future of European democracy and the media sector in the light of the increasing digitalisation. The event was organised together with CEBRE (the Czech Business Representation to the EU) and EURACTIV.CZ.

Marcel Kolaja, Vice-President of the European Parliament (Pirates – GREENS/EFA), Josef Šlerka, director of the Endowment Fund for Independent Journalism, and Michal Klíma, journalist, also took part in the discussions.

Among the topics discussed were the new European Democracy Action Plan and issues of transparency, media plurality, and self-regulation of large social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In this context, one participant asked: “If big online companies won’t listen, does the EU have the courage to disable, for example, Facebook or Google’s access to the European market?”

Another participant asked about how the EU will educate its citizens, in particular young people, in regards to the threats and opportunities of the online world. Other questions touched upon media literacy and micro-targeting in political campaigning.