What better way to prepare for the EU Parliament hearings of the new EU Commissioners than together with fellow democracy defenders?

On Wednesday 16 October, come and meet former MEP Sophie In 't Veld, a leading voice on democracy with 30 years experience in European politics, at a special edition of our monthly Brussels #DemocracyDrinks.

Join us for an informal exchange about democracy in the new EU Commission priorities, in the nomination and mission letters of new Commissioners, and in the European Parliament hearings with Commissioners-designate.

Defend Democracy represented civil society at the European Week of Regions and Cities session 'Regions Strengthening European Democracy'. Our founder Alice Stollmeyer spoke about citizen participation, cohesion, digital mindfulness and European not-for-profit digital infrastructure as antidotes to Russian subversion, disinformation and polarisation.

On 10 October Defend Democracy was honoured to engage Fellows from the Bertelsmann Foundation in a session about building democratic resilience in the digital era.

Defend Democracy joins more than 70 organisations backing a bold vision for a better, fairer digital world. Together they call on countries to invest for the public good. Their key demands:

• Break Open Big Tech to level the playing field
• Stimulate a new and fair digital economy

In an opinion piece by former CNN reporter Luke McGee about EU institutions being too soft on anti-EU populists, Defend Democracy founder Alice Stollmeyer points to Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán as the prime example of the Eurosceptics’ soft takeover. 

“For Putin’s proxies, it is easier to undermine the EU from within than from the outside.”

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