 on the European Democracy Action Plan. Dear Vice President, thank you so much for having accepted our invitation to debate the European Democracy Action Plan with the representatives of cities and regions across Europe. Our union can only be a union of shared and respected values. Local and regional authorities, as well as their elected leaders, have an important role to play, not only to safeguard and respect democracy, but to promote it. Human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and human rights. These are not only the values on which our union is founded, but a very clear way, very good instruments of assessing if, in each and every community or country across Europe, deeds follow words. Let me express the importance of involving regional and local leaders in this common endeavor. Being locally elected officials, the champions to strengthen our democracy, the equality and the respect for human rights across the EU. The faster we take action, the more inclusive we are in allowing local actors to take initiatives, the greater the chance we have of preventing issues. Let me stress three aspects in which the European Democracy Action Plan has a very straightforward approach to the challenges we have ahead. Empowering citizens to make informed decisions. And what this relates to fighting disinformation, fighting for press liberty. The second, promoting the democratic participation. Promoting the participation and the interest of citizens in the democratic process. And third, protecting elections integrity. We also appreciate the capital importance of the rule of law culture. The respect of which is fundamental for the recovery to happen and the cohesion policy to display all its potential in our regions. Dear Vice President, together with the COR's delegates to the conference, we will represent this will to team up in order to achieve our common goals. We stand ready to support the European Commission's priority and you push for European democracy. And therefore, in our opinions to be adopted today, you will find a number of concrete proposals. Madam Vice President, the floor is yours. Welcome. Thank you very much, Mr Vice President, Honorable Committee of Region Members. Can you hear me please? Yes, ma'am, we can hear you. We cannot see you yet, but we can hear you. It doesn't matter so much that you don't see me. Thank you for inviting me. It's a great pleasure for me to speak to you today on issues of such importance to the resilience of our democracies. Thank you for giving me a chance to present the European Democracy Action Plan, which we adopted in December after a very clear to say finding that democracy will not defend itself. That we have to work to protect and defend democracy. That it's not automatism, that it's not the end of history, that we simply have to devote more energy to protect the democratic processes. And here I mean also the free and fair elections, which are absolutely important for continuation of European democratic society life. We are now in a very clear moment. Our times call for decisive actions to support democratic processes, and these actions will only be effective if accompanied by clear political will to raise public awareness, strengthen collective resilience and protect our democracies in European values. And we are under the fast-paced digital evolution. We are called to ensure a favorable environment for any inclusive, respectful and pluralistic public debate. It remains, however, acutely clear that it is difficult to uphold fundamental rights and democracy in a largely unregulated online space. Especially when the business models of social media platforms do not always encourage free and open debate. And also the coronavirus pandemic has affected democratic processes. It has dominated the political debate and has accelerated the digital transition, which is revolutionizing how we do democracy. Now, I sometimes say that we are digitalizing democracy and we have to democratize digital. So I think that this transition is very clear and demanding for everybody. Coming back to digital space, allowing polarizing messages and unreliable information to be spread easily can limit our perspective and hamper our ability to make informed political decisions which has a dangerous effect on our democratic societies. With a long-term vision in mind, we elaborated on the European Democracy Action Plan to better protect our democratic systems. The plan addresses the areas in which our systems and citizens are most vulnerable by committing to measure to ensure free and fair elections to guarantee media freedom and media pluralism and to fight disinformation. And I think you have seen the plan. So now let me give you an update of where we stand with the implementation almost seven months after adoption. Time is running incredibly quickly. So first on free and fair elections. To protect the integrity of elections, the commission is working on two legislative proposals that will be adopted before the end of this year. The first one relates to online political advertising. We are convinced that people must know why they are seeing a political advertising, who paid for it, how much what micro targeting criteria were used. To this end, the commission will propose legislation on transparency of sponsored content in a political context. And we will pay close attention to how micro targeting criteria and other techniques for targeting and amplification are used as promoting political ideas is not the same as promoting products. I think we all remember the Cambridge Analytica case and the scandal which was here in 2017. And I said those days this must not happen in Europe anymore. We have to protect the people against the abuse of their private data and against this harmful micro targeting in order to influence their political decision making in the election. So this is what we try to do now by this legislation which we are preparing for the end of the year. The second is the revision of the rules on the financing of European political parties. The action plan also promotes civic engagement and active participation beyond elections. Across the action plan there is a strong emphasis on empowering citizens and civil society, including through increased funding. The commission will continue to support democratic participation and civic engagement under a variety of programs, be it creative Europe or horizon Europe. Some of these will address in particular civic education for youth and children. And I am sure there will be also a space for municipalities and the regions to get engaged and to participate in these programs. Now this information which is an important part of the European democracy action plan to be precise fight against this information. We see this relatively new phenomenon of this information spread online as a substantial and ongoing threat to democracy. Being used to divide the public in debates over policy to manipulate or suppress participation in electoral processes and also to attack the legitimacy of democratic institutions. We are responding to the challenge in the European way. I will explain for me someone who experienced communist propaganda and censorship. The key challenge is how to fight against this information while fully preserve the freedom of speech. Freedom of expression and information and media freedom and pluralism are irreducible core values of the European Union. It is essential to keep a balanced approach fully respecting democratic checks and balances. An effective response to this information also requires the involvement of all relevant partners including industry, especially the advertising industry and the digital industry. Then media, including traditional media, civil society as well as public authorities including of course regional and local authorities. One important element of countering this information is to address the role of online platforms. As announced in the democracy action plan, we recently published guidance setting out how signatories of the code of practice against disinformation should strengthen the functioning of this code. And we published the guidance some weeks ago and in the guidance you will understand from reading that you will understand that we want to make it whole of society matter. That there will not be one ministry of truth or I will not become the commissioner of truth. It's tempting but I told you I have my personal experience with living under the one official doctrine of communism and I can tell you never more, never more in Europe. So this is how we see the proactive work against this information. It has to be also understood in line with what's in the digital services act with the commission adopted in December last year where we propose binding and enforceable legal obligations for very large online platforms. It also sets out a co-regulatory framework to address systemic risks. So here I want to be well understood. Digital services act are it's the legally binding set of a piece of legislation where we want to increase a responsibility of platforms for the content, especially in relation to illegal content such as hate speech, terrorism and child pornography. And we are putting aside this information as harmful yet legal content. We are not covering this information by the digital services act, but we try to do it in a in a let's say different way because as I said, we have to preserve the freedom of speech fully. We also need to make our education fit for digital reality and local authorities and regional authorities can play an important role in media literacy efforts. So here I want to say to you that we count on your support for this endeavor. Local authorities have been involved in many of the commissions media literacy for all projects. So I believe we will we will continue successfully this cooperation media freedom and pluralism very short, short comment. We have found out that the media are under a special distress, not only in COVID time. There are a lot of attacks against journalists. So we are proposing to increase their security and also increase their ability to to defend themselves against the abusive mitigations. So a lot of concrete actions proposed in the European democracy action plan, which seeks to protect elections, protect democratic processes, protect free democratic debate. Which also be should be the case of the conference on the future of Europe, which was just presented by Gifford Hofstadt here. So I am fully available for the debate for your questions. But first of all, if you want to cooperate in protecting and defending your European democracy, I am your person in the commission. Of course, all my colleagues are on board with me, but you will find in me a very, very agile and always enthusiastic co-operator when you come with ideas. By the way, I always say that everything important for politics I learned, I learned at municipal and regional level because these were my beloved works of my past. So thank you very much for your attention. Thank you, Madam Vice President. What I would suggest to you is that now we'll have statements from all the political groups represented here at the Committee of the Regions. Then if you want to react to those statements from political groups, and then we'll have debate with the floor. Or if you prefer, every intervention is from our side, and then you conclude. You let me know what you want to do, please. And now I will give the floor to Alexandra Dulkiewicz from the EPP for four minutes. You have the floor, Madam. Thank you. I was just looking for the speak button. Thank you very much, Mr. President, Madam President. Thank you very much for this statement. We already had a chance to discuss during the preparation of my opinion, which will I present just after this debate. We as a Committee of Regions and as a group of the European People's Party, we are very much looking forward to this action plan. But to the real action plan, and I'm really glad that commission, the front institution, that all of you are working on the real measures, real instruments that will help us to survive, to survive our democracy, to survive the values on which the European Union is founded. I'm also grateful for this, what you have mentioned, never more living under one doctrine. You said it as a person from the Czech Republic, from the Czechoslovakia. I live in Poland, so those are the words which I also can sign with my both hands. Coming back to the European Democracy Action Plan, we really need to support with the real instruments the fight against this information. I'm not really quite sure if this, what you are preparing will be enough, we will see. But I don't know if we have so much time to check it. Thank you very much for seeing the role of the local and regional authorities as those who are the most trusted and those who are the closest to the citizens. This is something what we as EPP group were really looking forward. Union of the values, promoting of the citizens participation, fighting with this information. And first of all, this was already mentioned today during the previous both actually debates, promoting education, promoting critical thinking, promoting media literacy and education, not only at schools, but also education all over to the people who are actually really the one who can not really know what to do and what is through, what is not really true. Thank you very much. And we are really looking forward to real action, real democracy action plan. And we have full our support. Thank you. Thank you. I will not be the floor. This was Alexander from the EPP. Now I will leave the floor to Marie from the PES for four minutes. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. I hope you can hear me. Yes, we cannot see you, but we can hear you. Okay. I will speak. I will speak in Swedish, so I continue on that. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. At the same time, as a pandemic, we have lived with disinformation and conspiracy theories. And these undertakings, of course, are our democracies. They damage our common world and affect our interests. And they can also benefit from our lives. We cannot take democracy for granted. Democracy requires us to stand up for it every minute, every second. And that is why the outside of the law has to be put up in the election and that the vote must be made. And it must be underestimated. And also for people who actually live in a different member state. The efforts for European democracy must be taken into account to increase the participation of the voters on all levels of administration. But also their participation in a common Europe. It is important to keep in touch with the members on the grassroots level. And then they are the local and regional authorities responsible to get there. We want to have a continuous living democracy in Europe. And we must do that together. Thank you. Thank you. Now for a new Europe. I'll give the floor to Francois de Costa for three minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister. Marie-Joneson just reminded us with strength. Democracy deserves us to stand up for it every minute. Because democracy is being built. It takes time to be consolidated. But unfortunately, and Mrs. Prime Minister, you know it better than me, it can disappear in an instant. A few weeks ago, with my colleagues, Mayor Libero, we welcomed Vice President Vera Yorová for an exchange on a number of decisions taken by local and regional authorities of a member state considering that it was important to highlight homosexual people. There have been already many positions and courageous positions taken by the European Commission by its president to explain, first of all, the values that were founded by the European Union and to set up a process in which a first step of dialogue could be followed by sanctions. Well, I regret to note that a few weeks after this exchange that we had, Mrs. Vice President, it was in another member state that, once again, the values of the European Union are low. And I don't want a European Union that is weak. I don't want a European Union that is summed up and ultimately a budget. No, we have built the European Union because we wanted to defend democracy and all the values it bears. And to attack the values of democracy is to attack democracy itself, directly. So the words of the founding fathers of the European project must resonate today more than memories or memories, but as warnings, because to remove the values that were founded by the European Union that have been founded by the European project for decades, it is at risk of reviving the black people of the European past. And our continent must remember that. So, earlier with Margherita Skinas, your colleague of the European Commission, we mentioned the European lifestyle, and it was important that it was also inscribed in education. Well, I think there is a certain number of leaders that need to be educated. Before thinking about educating our fellow citizens and our youngest children, it is that when we sign international treaties, we respect them. And that the European Union is founded on an international treaty and that we must do all that is in this international treaty to sanction and quickly sanction the leaders who lower the values that have been hired in these international treaties. And I know, Madam Vice President, to be able to count on your energy to be able to respect these commitments and thus defend our democracy and its values. Thank you. Thank you. Now, for ECR, I'll give the floor to Matteo Bianchi for two and a half minutes. Thank you, President and dear Commissioner. Our group, the Committee of the Regions, supports the efforts of the European Commission in order to guarantee equal elections and to strengthen the freedom of expression. The proposal of the European Commission is an action plan for European democracy. It contains a series of pertinent requests, even if some of them still need to be clarified. In the first place, as a group of ECR, we agree on the fact that we need to look at the means of the elections that take place in the member states from any kind of interference. This topic interests us directly as representatives of elected regional localities, given that in many countries it is our responsibility to organize the elections and to guarantee security. We think that elections must be protected in a particular way. In the last few months in Brussels it has been discussed a lot about the need to expand the scope of critical infrastructures. Could it be time to expand the scope of what we intend with this concept and therefore consider critical infrastructures also the electoral processes? In second place, as far as the proposal of the European Commission is concerned, we all believe that the public European Union, that those of the member states, including those of the regional localities, will have to develop their ability to identify and perform disinformation. The fight against disinformation has become particularly important in these months and we can certainly say that today the coronavirus pandemic is accompanied by a disinformation pandemic. I conclude, President, Mr. Commissioner, I would like to make a reference to the proposal of the Relative Commission to an action plan for European democracy, which frankly leaves me confused. It is part of the role of the European Commission in developing the principles of journalism. It is not a matter that should be left to the organization of categories of the same journalists and be essentially an object of self-discipline. I leave it with this question. Thank you. Thank you. Now for EA, I'll give the floor to Josef Cobor for two minutes. Dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, we all agree and it has been repeated many times that we need to bring Europe closer to people, which is also the number one political priority of the Committee of the Regions. The Conference of the Future of Europe is a great opportunity to do that. It has to be a truly transparent, democratic, broad, decentralized and inclusive exercise. If not, it can be hit back on all of us. We count on you, dear Commissioner, make sure it doesn't happen. The problem is today that people feel distant from their elected representatives. The success of fake news disinformation is a consequence and a symptom of this. We should develop a positive narrative with our own citizens and reestablish broken connections with them. If there is trust between us and the citizens, no foreign power on internal or internal authoritarian ambition or business ambition will be able to break Europe. And one concrete way to doing that is establishing a permanent dialogue with citizens led by local and regional authorities. The proposal was put forward in the opinion of my colleagues, Dejan Merdanel from the EI, which was adopted anonymously in this House. In short, we need a strong, incredibly narrative, a list of concrete actions and constantly open two-way lines of communications with citizens. Thank you. Thank you. And now for the greens. I give the floor to Satu Apanan for two minutes. I think the photo looks a bit wrong, at least on the camera, but the phone is still on. Commissioner, it is good that the plan of democracy is strengthening the foundation of democracy, the protection of the election, the protection of the science, and the protection of the world. These are still the foundations for the development of the nation's democracy. It still came to mind how democracy and property are strengthened in the area. There is a lot of decision-making activity in Finland at the moment. In the last election, the decision-making activity was very low, so low that it was low in the 40s. Here is a very good commissioner in the work. In the development of democracy, the commission of the areas is yours and the commission's what a great work. The commission of the areas would have a better role in the role of the local regional authorities. For example, in the last election, it was announced in May that the plan would be to organize a meeting with the congress. Commissioner, in addition to the area and local authorities, the basic right to know is very low. For example, the commission of the areas that we move and promote. For example, the next congress meeting. Millions of elected officials, local politicians, representatives of the parties, different themes, democracy discussions. A national political school could be a one-year-old starting point. I also hope that the commission will thoroughly study the role of Robert Dulkiewicz, in which concrete actions are being carried out, as well as the role of Mr. Van Rijs in the basic books. In the end, democracy discussions should be carried out as part of the national agenda, as part of the policy of the areas. In this work, the commission of the areas and millions of elected officials can be supported. Thank you. Thank you. And this concludes the statements from the political groups. I have the information, Madam Vice President, that we would like to react to those statements now and then we'll have the interventions from the floor. Madam Vice President, you have the floor. Thank you very much. And thank you for all your comments and interventions. They were all very, very straight to the point. And I am really also inspired and happy to react on some of them. Madam Dulkiewicz, indeed we met recently. We discussed that the key for distribution of EU money should not be the political key, but the key of the needs and efficiency and value for money. This was, I think, also a very, very important debate we had with the commission is working with the conclusions of this debate. But coming back to your comments, you said that whether it will be enough, what is in ADAP, we believe that we have designed good proposals which indeed have to be implemented in full. So it must not remain to be just a paper whack. And I think that we have both very, very equal or similar instinct having also the background or spending our young years in communist regime that there are a lot of things which have to be done, also lessons learned from that regime where there was just one doctrine. And one important thing that the key thing is education which you mentioned yourself. And we sometimes neglect this line of education because this is long distance run and it is a mistake. So we have to focus more on that. Also we are preparing or already running some funding programs from the EU side. Especially what is worrying me is how easy it is to misinterpret the recent history. And it was also the case of disinformation spread in Poland. The disinformation about the Molotow-Ribbentrop agreement. How easy it was to brainwash the people again about this and to make Poland the perpetrator instead of telling the people the truth that they were the victims. So I was really shocked and we have to push the ministries of education in the EU states to focus on the modern history and on the lessons which we have to take and learn from the 20th century especially. Madam Johansson, profiling is an issue. We are addressing it in the legislation on artificial intelligence. And one general comment, technologies must not turn against the people. That's why everything we do, all the rules we are bringing for this technological world, we have this human centric approach that we must not allow the technologies including artificial intelligence to copy-paste the biases and unfair things from real life into this technological sphere. So we need indeed, as you said, the debate in Europe about all these things. We have to focus on many things which you mentioned. You said that the people go to the elections and they should be active in between elections, which is also my strong conviction. And one interesting thing which I noticed at the municipal and regional level there are, I think, no issues with the rule of law because the people are watching. People have this under control what you are doing. So it is important that the people are active and that they are not only asked to be active when they are coming to elections. I know I speak too long, don't I? I am watching you, Mr. Vice President. I will be short. Mr. Dekosta, yes. We are focusing on the holy trinity of values, the rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy. It was never before when I came to the commission in 2014 we really, in a big naivete, we saw that we will have these values protected automatically. This is not the true anymore. And we really try in the commission to come with the measures and with the plans which will invite the whole society because I must not be the lonely sheriff in that which Politico wrote about me some time ago. No, we need to connect forces because if we want democracy to survive we have all to do our homeworks and you know better than me what it means on regional level. Mr. Bianchi, yes. Elections, it's the member state competence. However, we created the network with the member states. We are discussing the matters of cybersecurity, mainly and data protection. And we believe that we have a problem if in several member states we will see that elections are not free and fair anymore. We will have problem on European Union level. So that's why the cooperation here is key. On generalism, I agree with you that they should regulate themselves. We are not touching that at all. But we believe that we have to create conditions for media to work, being economically fit and being safe. I think these are our obligations to guarantee that. Mr. Cobor, I fully agree. We need positive, maybe positive narrative. We must stop to be lazy in co-indicating what we are doing because if we leave the space and open it will be filled in by disinformation. We saw it in COVID. That's why we were encouraging the health authorities to inform more, to use the priority space created by Facebook and other networks because we were pushing them to do so. And to fill in the space otherwise, of course the disinformation will be over flooding every free space which we leave for them. So we need to out of respect for the citizens to communicate better and to tell them the truth, know the pink, the rosy pictures. And I think that we have to start to count this disinformation as a new phenomenon which cannot be fought by censorship but which has also to be fought by proactive communication respecting the citizens' right to information. Last comment on Madam Hapanen. You are absolutely right. The election participation is low. We have to attract the attention of people. Well, sometimes when people fear about their future it makes them to move and go to the elections. I don't think this is a good plan and good program but I think that we should also think about the method we use for elections and here comes what I said before that we should digitalize democracy. I am true believer in opening the e-voting systems so that the young people are more attracted so that we organize the elections in the way they are used to and to make it closer for them not to push them to use the old fashioned method to take the paper and go to throw it to a box. So one proposal for where we could cooperate further because you said the Committee of Regents was not broad enough on board and there should be more opportunities to have a factual debate. I think the recovery plans contain a lot of very useful projects and programs not to leave the people behind not to increase the gaps in the society. The money should help to take people with us for fresh and healthy recovery and I think that here we can cooperate. I would really like to see your projects and your proposals how to do this to have the people to get out of the recovery and to use also the European support for that. Thank you very much. Thank you Madam Vice President. Now we will have the interventions from the floor. We invite you to stay with us and I'll give the floor to Franz Schausberger for one minute. Yes, Madam Vice President, such an action plan has a meaning beyond the borders of the EU. Especially the Six West Balkans should already be taken into some form in this action plan to further develop the democracy in them and to make them fit for a contribution. Especially in the areas of law enforcement, strengthening democratic institutions, the civil society, the independence of the media, the fight against corruption, are unfortunately only gradual progress so that there are still many reforms that are necessary. For example, regional and local regional bodies play an important role and I mean their capacities must be strengthened. After the progress report in the area of freedom of opinion and independence of the media in the last period unfortunately reached the lowest progress. We are trying to ensure the independence of the public right to the media and to promote the transparency of public and private financing of the media. But we are not only allowed to see what is still missing but should be recognized on the progress that certainly brings to motivation further reforms. Thank you, sir. Now the floor to Dirk Wetter for one minute. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. Vice President, dear colleagues, I would like to limit myself on one aspect, namely on the aspect of a functioning violence for a functioning democracy. And I think it is especially clear that a strong right-wing state independent of the law that is the foundation of a strong democracy. As Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice I would like to highlight with the strength of the right-wing state we have, for example, the so-called pact for the right-wing state between federal and countries in Northern Westphalia has already been completed. In Northern Westphalia, we welcome therefore the seamless steps of the commission to react to right-wing states and the right-wing state reports are a very important element of the European toolbox. But in our opinion there will still be necessary the democracy, the right-wing state and the respect for basic rights are not available in Europe. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President. The Europe that we live in today was born as a response to the crisis that the continent experienced in the first half of the century. Even on occasion of the next crisis such as the end of the Cold War Europe has been able to give strong political responses to the important commission both under the political profile of the next generation U and under the profile of the financial instruments. But this response today must also be accompanied by a reinforcement under the democratic profile creating a new relationship with the city of Anza. For this reason we need courage, a new democratic movement that starts from the bottom. In these months of Covid, there has been an important reference point for the citizens even under the profile of the correct information. The local institution is the first state of democracy. That is why we ask that in the action plan for democracy in Europe, as in the COFOE there is a full involvement of the local autonomy. Through this we can give a contribution to bring the citizens closer to Europe. As a commissioner, I'm going to use a metaphor to present my point of view. Democracy is like cycling going by bike. You have to pedal continuously not to fall off the bike. The same is true for democracy. To be effective and successful, democracy must be exercised every day and by everyone. Democracy needs the participation of the citizens and the citizens. So, as a commissioner, I just want to underline the role of local and regional authorities in promoting and protecting European democracy. Why? Because in the end all democracy is local. As a conclusion, the best democracy action plan is the action. And the expectation of our citizens in a very functional Europe. Thank you, dear commissioner. Thank you. Now the floor to Mr. Adam Karaksoni for one minute. Mr. Karaksoni. Mr. Karaksoni. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor to Patrick Schwartz Kiefer for one minute. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And finally, the floor to Joseph Vereni. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much. Madam Vice President, you have my full support in the fight against disinformation, hoaxes and conspiracies. Being Slovakia, there is also a problem with these issues. However, I would like also ask you about the protection of traditional national minorities inside the European Union. As we know, there is no legal binding document which would protect the traditional national minorities. The minority safe pack initiative has been rejected by the commission. So therefore, my question is that do you see any room in the future that there will be adopted legal instrument protecting the traditional national minorities and are you ready to cooperate in this? Thank you. Thank you. I don't have any other requests for the floor. So, Madam Vice President, I will give you the floor with the indicative time of five minutes, please. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. First Vice President. I have to apologize to Mr. Soisberger because I had some technical problem with interpretation here. I know he spoke about the media recently, but my German is not good enough to be able to react. But I will react on maybe following comments maybe not attributing it to concrete speakers. I am dealing with the values and you can imagine it's not taking the boxes. This is done, this is done, this is done as an executive person which also I learned and I so much loved in working for municipality and the region. You can imagine that sometimes the work is maybe not frustrating but really very demanding because when you work on values like rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy, the work is never finished and several of you rightly said that it is the method for everyday work and we have to find new ways how to protect these values because we see new ways of endangering them especially when it comes to the modern technologies and the modern ways how to try to devastate the European democratic system. So I just want to say that the commission and myself are doing everything which is within the legal competencies to protect the rule of law which was mentioned here and the fundamental rights including the rights of the minorities. Not all the problems in the field of rule of law can be solved through infringement procedures. This is the obligation of the commission to launch such procedure when we see that there is a legal basis and there is a breach of EU law. But we try also to run the dialogue with the member states and we try to introduce new instruments such as the rule of law report which is annual report covering all the member states by the way the new one will be published on the 20th of July. And as I said this is the work for all the layers. I'll be happy to cooperate more with the committee of regions because when I am listening to you I think that maybe it was also my fault that we didn't have enough context in the past on such important matters which we are discussing today. So as I said before now the post Covid time will be very demanding we need to use the recovery funding in the proper way. It will be under incredible time pressure because the money has to be invested till 2026 and I am sure that the local and regional authorities will be fully involved in these investments which should go to the benefit of the citizens. So again I am fully available for such cooperation. Miss Yes, Mr Bock said it, you have to pedal all the time to protect democracy. I have on my wall behind me the Czech president and he always said that democracy is so easy for those who take it seriously and so easy for those who want to just neglect it or abuse it. So I think this is clear. Mr Karacione sorry for maybe pronunciation. Yes, I said that I see ill democracy in Hungary because it was in the context of the debate also about the health issues and I said that when in a body something is not functioning well we see that the body is ill and what I see as a problematic issue in Hungary is especially the media and the pressure on the under free media and also recently the shameful law on which is stigmatizing LGBT people and all and several others from the past I don't want to repeat it all signs that there is something which is deviating from the mainstream of the European values and I use the work mainstream now I want to be well understood we have the European values enshrined in the treaty in the article 2 the rule of law principle anti-discrimination and and I think that we have to act when we see that the country is going in a direction which we find wrong and which we find deviating too far from the basic pillars but Mr Karacione and Mr Boreny sorry I don't have glasses but any you will be surprised how often I defend especially the countries from Central and Eastern Europe how often I say that there cannot be expectations that these countries will just imitate the West in everything you would be surprised how often I defend your right to say really about your priorities and your values but forgive me I would not be at the right place if not defending the values like protection of minorities and protection against discrimination and protection of independent judiciary and so on last comment on the minority safe pack I use disappointment of the signatories about the decision of the commission not to react by adopting legislation but we really did a thorough assessment of what legislation we have and what measures we can apply already now and that it's better to implement and do in full and use the rules and the conditions and also funding programs we have now enhanced to also promote the language minorities because this is about languages mainly and also traditions to use the current rules and instruments rather than promising the future legislation which according to my colleagues who are dealing with these subjects is not necessary but you ask whether there is an opportunity to open it again I think that there is now opportunity under the conference on the future of Europe to raise again these issues and that you find it important to strengthen the protection so this is not closed door forever but as I said we did a thorough analysis and assessment and we came to the conclusion that we already have sufficient instruments now enhanced thank you very much thank you thank you madam vice president thank you so much for being here with us and for taking the time to debate with us the European action plan for democracy thank you we appreciate your presence and we appreciate taking the time thank you have a nice day thank you very much have a nice day bye thank you now ladies and gentlemen members we will proceed to point