 Thank you very much, Mr. President, Honourable Member of the Parliament, Honourable Vice President, dear members and guests. It's a real pleasure for me and honour to be here today to discuss with you a pressing issue of the risks posed by disinformation and foreign interference. And it's very frank when I say that it's a pleasure for me because after working five years for municipality, then two years for region, and then five years or six years at the Ministry for Regional Development, I can confirm that my heart still beats for the regions. So thank you for inviting me. I also want to thank you for your roadmap on the European elections and the opinion on the role of local and regional authorities in countering disinformation and foreign interference. We are less than a year ahead of the biggest democratic exercise in Europe, namely the elections to the European Parliament, and there is still time to prepare ourselves and become more resilient, because we have to count with the fact that there will be attempts to disinform, to influence and to manipulate. Russian war in Ukraine is just the latest reminder of the efforts our enemies put in these methods. I hope today no one has any doubts that Kremlin fights with bombs in Ukraine and with words in EU. It is part of military doctrine of Russia for generations. Now with digital revolutions, they simply gained new tools to do that, and I am sorry to say that they have some very agile proxies also on European Union territory. The response to that threat must be democratic and European, because the freedom of speech in democracy is sacred. I would like to talk about what all of us can do to support strong democracy, immune to the threats coming from inside and outside. Our response to some such challenges can only be successful if we engage all Europeans, because a democracy that excludes is not a democracy at all. In the recent Eurobarometer, over a third, one third of citizens felt that democracy was the one core value that the European Parliament should protect above all else. And 54% of the respondents expressed satisfaction with the way democracy works in the EU. Is it enough? 54%? In my view, it's not. Our mandate is therefore clear. There remains room for improvement, and we must do whatever we can to live up to citizens' expectations to deliver stronger democracies. With the 2024 European Parliament elections approaching, we are preparing several initiatives to make elections more resilient, free and fair. With one of the largest democratic exercises in the world less than a year away, we are also actively working with national authorities through the European Cooperation Network on Elections to promote and facilitate the participation in these elections for all citizens. Visiting the framework of this network, the Commission also established a joint mechanism for electoral resilience. This initiative helps Member States exchange expertise in areas such as disinformation, cybersecurity and online forensics. Member States can use the mechanism to build their capacity to fight unlawful interference, discover covered political funding or ensure effective implementation of their electoral rules online. Let me say a few words about the European Democracy Action Plan from 2020. That's the plan which sets out targeted actions to preserve open democratic debate. It is first comprehensive plan to address the threat of disinformation and foreign interference. Our approach recognizes that an effective response to disinformation requires the engagement of all stakeholders, industry, civil society, researchers and national and regional authorities. The actions at the regional level and a local level play a very important role, in particular for the media literacy and public awareness raising as key tools to counter and limit the impact of disinformation. One thing that we continue to observe is an increasing distrust to all sorts of authorities or experts. This creates a breathing ground to trust in conspiracy theories and unverified sources. This is why regional and local authorities are so important. You are closest to the people. You are dealing with the daily fears and problems. You have the chance to become the most trusted source of important information. We are trying to support these efforts but also address the challenge on the EU level. The new anti-disinformation code is an important piece of the EU's efforts to fight disinformation. It is our most ambitious and comprehensive toolbox for tackling disinformation to date offering a space for fast action, cooperation and experimentation. It is a voluntary tool but linked with legislation signed by major online platforms such as Facebook, Google. We have all the big ones except Twitter. We have on board civil society and many other relevant bodies. The new code sets out commitments to fight online disinformation in various areas and equally in all member states and all languages. Let me stress that we are paying particular attention to the regional responsibilities of the signatories of the code. This includes dedicating sufficient resources to implement the code in all languages, making sure that the algorithm and content moderation is equally effective in all languages and having a strong fact-checking coverage in all member states. We also established the so-called European Digital Media Observatory and 14 regional hubs of the media observatory which now cover the whole EU. I don't have time to go into details but in case there are questions I can answer, how this observatory works. Commissioned representations have many cooperation initiatives with regions and local authorities. The scope of exchange may vary in the member states and cover different areas like media literacy, information, awareness, detection of our response. We also have 440 Europe direct centres present in almost all regions of the EU. I would wish more intense cooperation between our regional centres and the regional and local authorities. There is always a space for something more intense. In June 2022, the Commission in close cooperation with the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regents launched an open call for local councillors to join the network which is called Building Europe with Local Councilors. This groundbreaking project engages with locally elected politicians to support their effort to communicate with citizens, local media and other local stakeholders. Let me also conclude with just a brief mention of the so-called Depends of Democracy which is an initiative we are working on right now. The twin aim is to tackle the threat of foreign interference while building resilience from within by encouraging inclusive civic engagement and citizen participation in our democracies. One of the main elements we are considering is the legislative initiative on transparency of interest representation activities remunerated or directed by certain governments and entities. Other elements that are under preparation include commission recommendations to inclusive and resilient electoral processes and on civic engagement. It is vital to have transparency of foreign funding. What may initially seem as an innocent or even good investment on local level might take a completely different shape when you see what is happening on national or European level. In many discussions I had in the recent weeks, I also understand that it is mainly the national authorities that have some tools to assess the scale and risks for foreign funding. China and local authorities remain largely defenseless against this challenge. We are preparing the package for autumn this year to be complete about the concrete information on this defense of democracy package. Ladies and gentlemen, we all have to play our part to support and protect democracy. It is clear democracy is not a perpetuum mobile. Something which is given, something which is automatic. This is something which needs to protect, defend and nurture every day. I count on creativity, support and active role on the committee of the regions and all its members in this most important task of our generation. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Mr. Gruksmann, you have the floor for five minutes. Thank you very much, Chairman. Colleagues, Madam Vice President, for too long we have been Democrats out of comfort, inertia or habit. The moment has come for us to be Democrats of conviction. And Madam Vice President, you yourself said that democracy is chipped away if it is not nurtured by our investment. For too long we have let foreign dictators wipe their feet on our sovereignty. They have turned our political class into a supermarket where they could come and do their shopping. They have attacked our infrastructure or our hospitals during a pandemic without reacting. We've been weak and naive for too long, which has threatened our democracy. For more than a decade we've been the targets of numerous external attacks operated by state or power state actors, propped up by Russia and China. These attacks have been financed and organized in a strategic way. They have taken different forms, political campaign funding, cyber attacks on strategic infrastructure, investments, manipulation of information and the capture of elites. It has put the EU in a state of hybrid warfare. We must protect our sovereignty and our democracy and we have no longer to be weak. It's imperative that we become conscious of this at every level and that our response be both European, national, regional and local. So I'm delighted by the draft opinion by your committee on the role of local and regional governments in a fight against disinformation and foreign attempts to interfere and attack our democracy. The special committee on foreign interference that I chair is coming to a close soon after three years of debate and missions. In June the European Parliament adopted a second report saying that local and regional politicians are strategic in deploying our strategy in fighting disinformation, cyber security, infrastructure, education. You have a huge role to play. Local governments should have the right tools to fight against manipulation, interference and disinformation. During the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we've all observed the direct effects of these disinformation campaigns on citizens. So today I would like to focus on one particular aspect which underlies all strategies aiming to make our democracy more durable. First of all, education. Local and regional governments should include media education in school syllabus as soon as possible and from a very young age. It should create support for teachers to make sure that educational activities are adapted to local realities. We should have education campaigns to help people to decipher media messages and they should be as broad as possible. This should address people in schools as well as older people. We also need to give increased support to independent press. The existence of local media should be considered as fundamental for the survival of democracy. Foreign interference is not limited to manipulating information. We need to get serious on the issue of cyber security and you have a role to play in that. We also need to get serious when it comes to the strategic infrastructure that we need to protect against hostile investment and there again you have a role to play. We also need to protect the funding of public life and make the rules governing our debate more transparent. The work of the parliament on foreign interference is now coming to an end but we are very far from having won the war. Particularly when it comes to IT. We need a cross-cutting strategy to defend ourselves from foreign interference and I have to say I'm very much looking forward to the publication of the package on the defence of democracy from the European Commission. All hesitation or provocation any variation from the original draft will be a defeat for democracy. The European Parliament voted with an overwhelming majority so that we could get a common tool to protect our democracy against foreign interference. It's time to act and therefore all levels of government need to work together. It is a precious resource and it's up to us to make sure that European democracy may triumph. Thank you Mr. Guksman. Now I give the floor to Gustav Marek Bzazin is the repertor in our opinion. You have the floor for three minutes. President, Madam Commissioner, dear colleagues, dear friends, in recent years we have been hearing more and more often about disinformation campaigns which. They are aimed at threatening basic values of the EU. Disinformation and fighting it has to do with reinforcing democracy at local and regional level. Therefore there's the need for preparing an opinion by the Committee of the Regions. That is a document that would contain clear recommendations which we can introduce in our local communities. While working on the opinion I followed the objectives to prepare a tool set for identifying disinformation and it's not only about being active at the EU level but in particular about initiatives that we can introduce in our cities and regions. Dear friends, in my opinion I mean I mentioned that there must be cooperation between different levels of power but there must be local initiatives as well together with civic society and journalists fighting disinformation is not possible without media literacy. In our times we see many problems that have to do with people being able to verify and analyze information. In my opinion I stress how important critical thinking is while using the media. I am convinced that actions aimed at supporting media literacy should cover all social groups irrespective of age or place of residence. When we talk about the media space we must mention journalists, in my opinion I stress how important local media is for fighting disinformation and for creating a broader context for transmitting information. Therefore I believe it is very important that we support actively local initiatives for media and that we support organizations of the so-called fact-checkers. Now the last issue of equal importance that I mentioned is protecting the electoral process. It's very relevant because of the elections to the European Parliament to be held next year. We need to make sure that political campaigns are transparent which is why in my opinion I stress why it is relevant to encourage local communities and particularly younger generations to follow elections and to analyze information provided about the elections. In the last months we worked together including in my region and let me thank you and I would like to also thank my expert, my personnel, all colleagues, Mr. Muldison in particular for your cooperation involvement. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now the floor goes to Patrick Molinos for three minutes. Thank you President, thank you Vice-President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as representative of local and regional authorities we need to underscore the importance of increasing the awareness about the changes in our society to the point where they threaten our democratic model. Fighting against foreign interference is also generally speaking fighting against disinformation and fighting those who question science is absolutely vital to preserve democracy. I believe that the ongoing situation in France would not have happened without social media which exacerbates and speeds up the behaviors of individuals and this leads to a violence which questions all instances of public authority in the country. We need to ensure cohesion in our societies to do so. Local representatives need to fight disinformation and I would like to thank members of the civics committee and thank Mr. Jayjian for his opinion. What we want to see is that there is more focus on this topic, we need to look at what can be done at a local and regional level but we are able to fight against those agents who want to destabilise our democratic system. As a local representative we are best placed to give local people trust and confidence in democracy. This will also give them trust in our national and European institutions so we as local representatives need to ensure that the different levels of representatives are respected. We know how to speak to local citizens. We can facilitate development of critical thinking and contribute to better use of IT tools. We can also fight against hate speech and I would like to highlight the launch of the Parmenon-Movich Prize which encourages individuals to work in this area in defence of European values. Finally, when we know that there will probably be a disinformation and interference against the European elections in 2024, as a result of that, local and regional authorities need to be at the forefront of the fight against this. We need to continue to mobilise electives including the youngest. We need to provide specific information about the EU, about what is going on from linked to the EU at a local level and we need to be able to fight the European election which is often seen in European elections. We need to ensure that the European elections are not just away from settling national scores. Our contribution is absolutely vital. It will help us to defend European democracy but also to defend European democracy. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Member Geblevic for two minutes. Thank you very much, Mr President. Firstly, I would like to congratulate Mr Dresden for a perfect drafting of opinion and then I would like to thank very much on behalf of an EPP group in the European Committee of Regents to commission Europe for all your dedicated work to strengthening local democracy on the ground and your important words about the role of the local and regional authorities to promote fighting for democracy, for promoting European values. But let me be frank that in many countries, just like in my country in Poland, sometimes we feel really very abandoned. We feel really alone in this fight. I don't like to tell you one million of stories about the propaganda in our public state owned TV, about the hate speech in this TV and Paweł Adawang, which mentioned before it was one of the victims. I can only tell you that in my country, I'm a president of two million inhabitants region in Poland and I haven't been invited to the public or TV station for five years. So it is not an ordinary situation. I think that it is still challenging to fight for truth, for democracy on the ground. So what we can do? What we can do more? I think that certainly we should support NGOs and independent media on the ground. But what I would like to draw your attention to is the fact that even in regulation regarding the promotion of European co-founded projects, still there are some kind of not very proper regulations, which on one hand, going to the cutting the cost of this promotion and on the other hand, what is even more risky, to subordinate it to all to national level, all regulations to national level. And thanks to this, unfortunately, we are playing the game on the national level, which would like to only blame Europe not, and would like to only privatize our common successes on the ground with the help of Europe. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member Dolkevic, you have the floor for two minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President, Madam Commissioner, Monsieur Glucksmann, dear colleagues from the Committee of the Regions. Thank you very much for another opinion on this very, very crucial topic. In my opinion, this is extremely important. This is also something where I try to stress also, in my opinion, prepared, especially on the European Democracy Action Plan, prepared, the document prepared under Madam Commissioner Yorova, that this is really, really important to stress the fact that we really need to care not only at this European level, but also at our local and regional level for democracy, for the rule of law, for the values, for independent media. Thank you very much also for mentioning Mayor Paweł Adamowicz and our cooperative initiative prepared by the Committee of the Regions, City of Gdansk and ICORN. We launched this award, Mayor Adamowicz's award for the third time, so we are waiting for the best candidates, not only people, but also organizations, those who are supporting those basic values on which European Union is founded and for which we really would like to fight for. Therefore, thank you very much. I want to stress and congratulations to Marek Brzezin, because in my opinion, there are several actions needed, but one basic, it was also mentioned by Mr. Glucksmann that education not only at schools, of course, this much easier for us, but also education for those vulnerable groups of people, especially seniors, immigrants, and so on and so on, to express how important it is to use democracy in a proper way. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member Ruyon, you have the floor for two minutes. Merci, Monsieur le Prédident. Thank you, Mr. President. We know this is an important debate, but liberal democracy is threatened by the rise of the extremes in Europe and the Russian and Chinese dictatorship. You need to go back to the Greek root of democracy. What we need to defend today is the demos itself. The term refers to the citizens of a territory who are informed and take decisions on the best way to progress issues in their territory. However, citizens, unfortunately, may fall into political apathy because they do not have the information available to them. Public opinion is manipulated by social media, which have become the breeding ground of disinformation and foreign interference. We saw this in the most recent rights in France, particularly with TikTok. We've also seen in France, young people who have attacked the police, and this was shared on Twitter, saying France's photo of the day, the aim was to try and to exacerbate the chaos and to stigmatise individuals who came from a specific area. There are rights in France, and I hear we're talking about images which are being taken by the BBC Verify, which is fighting disinformation and access. Regulation is not enough. We need self-vigilance. We need immunity of people to fight this disinformation. We, local regional authorities, can have a key role when it comes to fighting this. We need to support people rational critting. The second part of the word democracy, where we're demos, can also mean it's not only citizens, but it's also the territory itself. Democracy begins and prospers in a territory. It is incumbent upon us to defend it in the villages and small towns that we have in Europe. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member Menesini, you have the floor for two minutes. Thank you very much, President, and thank you very much to the Vice President Yarova, Mr Gluxman and other colleagues for their speeches. I would like to say that local government plays a key role in education on misinformation. In Kapaneri and Tuscany, we have a programme for young people between 13 and 18 to raise their awareness about the use of artificial intelligence and the processes involved in virtual reality, so that they can be protected against incorrect information. As the Vice President said, recommendations for education about how to use social media and protect yourself from misinformation, there could even be a webpage to gather best practice at a local level or at a national level and across Europe. That's one idea. I also have an observation about the issue of informatic safety for governments. In April, the Commission proposed a cyber shield to protect us with 1.1 billion euros as a budget. Both in terms of governance and budget, it was founded on a national approach, which I don't think takes sufficient account of the very distributed way that local governments work. So if we truly want investments to be efficient, they should be made at a local and regional level. Lastly, given the founding meeting on Friday in which I will represent the Committee of the Regions, I'd like to say to the Vice President that our organisation will give its support to this. We saw a register for transparency in the European Union. The meeting ethics will be the watch words of the internal regulations of the institutions are coming up. You have the floor for three minutes. Thank you, President, dear colleagues. We are facing major challenges. We know that we've seen violent attacks in France and may have been victim as well. We also need to recognise the responsibility that falls to all of us as local and regional authorities. We have seen a significant drop in participation to elections in France, the most recent elections in 2021. It was 34.6% turnout. Citizens feel cut off from political processes. This disinterest undermines our society because the citizens are the heart of democracy. Moreover, only 33% of French citizens have trust in the political institutions. They express their frustration and they doubt whether to address the problems that we face. With these challenges, local and regional authorities have a role to do this. We can address their daily concerns and we are aware of the aspirations and hopes. We need to rebuild this bond of trust with citizens. We need to encourage participation. We should commit ourselves to promote transparency in our actions. We need to fight against corruption and ensure that our decisions are taken in a democratic manner. We need to ensure that citizens can be actively involved in the decision making process. Local and regional authorities need to be areas where diversity of opinion is welcome and we need to make sure that every voice is heard. At the Bush-Duron level, I am an elected politician. We have just had four months of consultation with citizens and we are talking to people about social cohesion and the green transition. We have had educational activities in schools to find fake news. In our department, we have individuals and services which are addressing issues around values and also secularism. We have an advisory service for young people to make them aware about how institutions work. We have set up a platform for rapid alerts for whistleblowers, which is anonymous, to be able to fight against corruption and working both at an individual and collective manner. We can reverse these trends and we can defend democracy. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member Ortil, you have the floor for two and a half minutes. Thank you, President. Madam President, to start with, I would like to express our concern with recent incidents in France where members of local government become object of attacks. We are also worried by the fact that EU institutions are not talking about the level of legal order and threat to democracy in France. Polish citizens are disappointed with the delay of European help after the pandemic and hearing about the threats to cohesion funds can see that not all nations are treated equally in Europe. The delays are supported by arguments that are difficult to understand and this is harmful to our cohesion policy. The convergence process is also hurting the image of the European Union in those regions. It's not helping democracy. Geopolitical situation has been changing. In the EU it is also important that you can see the scopes of responsibility at different level of government. So one should probably remember that there is still, there is the principle of subsidiarity to be followed. There are things that we need to do together irrespective of our political colors. We need to defend our democracy against foreign interference. It's a major duty for all of us because information spreads like wildfire and we must protect our processes against foreign influence and disinformation. Local and regional authorities must be more sensitive and more aware of that. Our spending is needed on cyber security, on protecting critical infrastructure, protecting electoral system against manipulation. At the level of the European Union we can coordinate our action to counteract foreign interference. The opinion but Mr. Brezin includes clear recommendations on the best practices on how to achieve our goals. Now if we look at the issues from the European perspective, European democracy is being defended by the Ukrainian nation. Solidarity is a Polish specialty and we all must be determined to support Ukraine. Although the circumstances are different, Ukraine is also facing a similar challenge of decentralization and building a strong local government. Local governments represent people on the ground at the central level. Thank you very much. You have the full for two minutes. Thank you very much, President, Vice President Yurova, Mr. Gluckman, the President of the CVEX Committee. Of course the governments that are closest to the citizens can push forward and reinforce the European project in democracy. This is why progressive forces are here to face the threats to democracy and rights, which are being threatened by the far right and disinformation and hate speech as a political tool. In Catalonia we have been seeing these hate speeches, the Catalan date, the biggest European spying scandal showed up the weakness of our democracies. These weaknesses that opened the door to the far right in the Pegasus case in Spain revealed the shame of socialist politicians who did not condemn it and threatened a peaceful democratic project that involved millions of European citizens, which is the independentist movement in Catalonia. The rise of the far right also affects the European culture and linguistic wealth. The far right party Vox are operating a direct attack on the Catalan language and culture in the Balearics and Valencia. This is removing linguistic rights from citizens and it's a step backwards provoked by ignorance and fear that is trying to sow hate speech and ignorance. The government of Catalonia defends the fact that everybody should be able to live in their own language and culture and we will not stop until Catalan is officially recognized here in the European Union. That also benefits the European project and our citizens. Fascism cannot be laundered and it cannot be played with. And we have to fight fascism. All progressive forces are mobilizing around Europe because they will not be allowed to pass in Catalonia or in Europe. Our life and our freedom is at stake. Member Ratilainen, you have the floor for two minutes. Thank you Chair, distinguished speakers and dear colleagues. We found ourselves in cities and regions in the face of new set of challenges. Right movements and the erosion of common democratic values in many countries. It is very much a local issue as said because the victims are not only systems and societies but also individual people, the citizens of our region, sensitivities. I would like to emphasize that online this and misinformation that is often mentioned hate speech, manipulation and interference always reflects attitudes, norms, harmful behaviour, discrimination of minorities and anti-democratic ideologies of the real world. Therefore, our theory of change has always to be first and foremost there in the real world. In the context of the election to the European Parliament, this debate as well as the opinion of today presented by the rapporteur are very, very topical and current. Getting societal resilience to this information starts at early age as said in the previous speakers. In the creation of media literacy, education is needed in the school curriculas. But I don't think that the main challenge lies in the adults of the future but more likely of adults of today. This is also where the regions and cities need more tools and support because it is also a much more challenging than to reach the youth and children of today. Quote by Martin Niemeler, a German pastor has been recently widely shared in Finnish social media. It tells about the reaction of majorities when they see different groups of people and democracy under attack. The quote ends, then they came for me and there was no one else left to speak for me. The opinion that will be adopted today in this plenary especially suggests a framework of possible initiatives of local and regional level in the area of countering this of information. This I think is very useful. Toolpox can fix challenges to democracy combined with the behavioural change. But it also asks for courage from who leads the people to recognise and acknowledge and anti-democratic ideologies and patterns of the adults. Thank you. Thank you. Now member Turk, one minute. Dear Mr. Chair, dear colleagues, cities and regions as a local government the closest to the citizens have a special responsibility when talking about democracy and defending democratic values. To successfully address these challenges it is clear that we need funds to strengthen capacities, additional materials, systemic approach, use of good practices and support and exchange of best practices with our colleagues. In many aspects we have made good steps forward but it is most important that these tools be accessible to all member states and all levels of government. Without their wide application we will have no real results. Therefore I believe that members of this distinguished body we need to give our contribution to promote this topic and to motivate others to do all the necessary steps in order to strengthen their own capacities to address this struggle against this information. And here I include also support of pluralism in local and regional media. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you. President, during times of crisis as we currently experience this in fact this information can be terribly dangerous. So we have to live up to the expectations of citizens in the area in which are decisive for human life. For example, for digitalization has to be the interest of people to solve daily problems of citizens, healthcare to housing. So the same applies to the European elections in the run up to the European elections. We have to get people enthusiastic for Europe. For example, with events, with competitions, European day 2024, Europe only has one future. And if those generations, if young people have to be actively involved in its creation, because the European train can only remain on the tracks and achieve its destination, if we have support for democracy at every level. Thank you. Member Fernández Vianna, you have one minute. Gracias, President. Thank you, Mr. President. Aliens alliances with the extreme right to have been seen across Europe, even in Spain. We have to take this that we say that the far right is permitting institutions and its influence when negotiations on climate change and the measures to address this we're seeing impacts being had on other areas as well, synchronization of immigrants, we're also seeing xenophobia which goes against the constitution, we're also seeing steps being taken against abortion rights and rights for women. This is a step back and political leaders at local and regional level cannot turn their backs. The question is what can we do at all different levels to fight these? Those of us who are part of political parties that represent democratic systems, we've understood that the far right is a threat. We need to ensure that we have packs to facilitate to work to defend the common goods. You, Member Magyar, you have the floor for one minute. Mr. Schoss. Madam Commissioner, although we've been hearing lots of critical remarks about the rule of law in Hungary, it has to be said that the policies of the Hungarian government are based on the will of the Hungarian people who have consistently re-elected this government four times in a row. The government enjoys widespread support as well as the trust of its citizens who know that the government will conscientiously represent their interests and look after their needs. It is paramount that there be a fair and respectful dialogue between the institutions and member states. Criticism of the rule of law should not become an arbitrary political tool to avoid substantive debate and to silence the opponent. The rhetoric of the representatives of the institutions has a major impact on dialogue and can stand in the way of mutual understanding and efforts to promote cooperation. We call on the EU institutions to fully respect the principle of subsidiarity and the democratic will of the citizens. There should not be any double standards. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. Local and regional governments have a pivotal role to play in preventing the spread of disinformation. Firstly, we possess the local knowledge needed for a more tailored and effective strategy in countering disinformation. We can deliver targeted messages that dispel falsehoods, promote critical thinking and foster media literacy. Secondly, we have the opportunity to engage directly with our voters and cultivate an informed and resilient community that can independently separate the truth from disinformation, spread and malice. And thirdly, we have the means to create links across sectors by bringing together local media educational institutions and other stakeholders. We can create comprehensive and coordinated strategies and initiatives to combat disinformation. And as far as I'm concerned, we put the emphasis on education of young learners in particular. We have our work set out for us because disinformation campaigns are sure to be launched ahead of the European elections. Thank you. Thank you. Member Ilya, you have the floor for one minute. Microphone for the speaker, please. Microphone. In context of aggression in Russia. In the context of Russia's aggression on Ukraine, the importance of local authorities in defending democracy is now more significant than ever. Us in Tula, at the border with Ukraine, we are at the front of this war. And we know what this means, and we are committed to fighting propaganda that is threatening our democracy. We are seeing negative actions by individuals. And disruptions of flows and goods are justified in order to promote aggression. And we take a stance against this propaganda. We have a major infrastructure program now, a bridge in our region. But this is not enough. We need more funding. We need more infrastructure to build bridges between Tula and the Constanza. As the mayor of Tula, I'm trying to convince the EU of the necessity of such investments. We need infrastructure, EU infrastructure, at the border with Ukraine, because this will promote EU values and will build resilience against threats to our democracy. Thank you. Thank you. Member Klizovic, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. It is obvious that our democracy is under attack from domestic and foreign elements. Domestically, a number of interested groups which do not care at all for democracy, but only for their own interests, primarily criminal and financial, jeopardize our democracy every day. Internationally, attack on our democracy is a part of a special warfare. And therefore, everybody should be alarmed, including local authorities. Both try to manipulate public opinion and decision-making in democratic institutions. This is a very serious issue, since our democracy is based on citizens' trust in these institutions. Therefore, our defense should include our citizens. It's a citizens' democracy. Our answer should be participative democracy. Main task of local authorities to work with citizens through different programs to encourage them to actively engage in defending democracy as much as they can. And at the same time, we should be minded that the platforms for direct citizens' participation could be misused for attacking the same democracy. Thank you. Member Rausio, you have the floor of one minute. Dear President, dear Commissioner, I will speak finished now and tell a few examples from my hometown, Hamellina, what we've done in this very important topic. Demokratia opitaan Ariessa. Kotikaopungi-Saniha. Democracy, of course, is learned in the daily life. And in my town, young people are involved everywhere. We ask them what the priorities should be, human rights, climate change, sustainable development. Hamellina is a child-friendly town, the first one in Finland, which in where young people can make these decisions. For example, how to spend the budget. And in that fashion, they believe in us. We have the possibility throughout the EU to learn from this, a new way of approaching democracy. Using the tools we already have, young people have to know more about the EU, what the EU does, what the values are. And so that's why we have to speak very clearly in the social media. Florian Wunsch, Y-A-E-P. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Let me talk about trust today. Democracy needs trust. Democracy needs trust both into elected representatives, but also into our institutions of democracy. I think we need to acknowledge that today, in many cases, trust is already gone. Trust has been lost in many cases because of scandals all over the continent. Unfortunately, also here within the European Parliament. It will be particularly up to the local political level to restore trust. So how can we do that? I cannot stress enough the importance of participative projects, participative processes. Whenever we, on the local level, are ready to invest in our infrastructure in schools, in roads, in whatever case, frankly, we need to proactively involve our fellow citizens. We need to organize town hall meetings as often as we can and make people feel hurt. Because in the end, regaining trust is also the fencing democracy. Thank you. Thank you very much. One minute. Herr Präsident, Frau Kommissar. President, Madam Commissioner, in town halls, this is really where you see democracy firsthand. First of all, in Bavaria, we're having involving young people at the communal level. And so we have young people involved. And secondly, we use the Austrian model. And we have this network we've created among city councils throughout Europe so that the local councils are involved. And thirdly, in our local parliament, we've decided by 2024 we would like to have that the European year against hate. So I hope you can take that into account. Thank you. Thank you. Karaksoni, one minute. You said Bistos also. Madam Commissioner, Hungary and Poland have been accused of violating the rule of law on many occasions. The loudest accusations often come from the European institutions themselves. Before pointing your finger at someone else, we should all look closer at home and see if our acts are in line with our values. The recent track record of European institutions, as far as rule of law principles are concerned, is rather patchy. Therefore, next year, the Hungarian presidency is probably going to propose a rule of law mechanism for the European institutions themselves. I encourage all of you, defenders of the rule of law, to support this Hungarian initiative to guarantee that the rule of law is a reality at every level in the European Union. Thank you. Member Agedus, you have the floor, one minute. Thank you very much. Commissioner Jurova, Vice President Jurova, I think it's very important to have trust in European institutions. I come from the town of Vesprem in Hungary and I see this trust disappearing because the citizens feel that the local level is punished due to political disputes. For example, our local university cannot take part in the Erasmus program or the RRF funding is not coming to Hungary. I think we can only restore trust in Europe and European institutions if the citizens feel that the institutions respect local, regional, and national elections and their results. It is our common interest to build strong local communities, strong towns and regions, and only strong nations can form the basis of a strong Europe. Thank you. Thank you. Schwartzki for one minute. Vielen Dank. Thank you very much. I would like to draw your attention to a very important point. Spreading disinformation knows no borders. In other words, multilingual people are endangered by fake news in a number of different languages, especially if we're talking about national minorities. So, for example, if we hear fake news about the war in Ukraine and it depends, we, content in the mother native language is something that is often replaced by information in the national language. So we have to be, it's very important to have the correct information in order to correctly fight disinformation. So the information has to be tailored to the language, language usage of the population. So it's very important to see that the dependence of most media on the central government is so great that this is often not the case. Thank you. Member Karajanis, one minute. Thank you very much, Chairman. And thank you for the Committee of the Regions for organizing this debate. It's a basic plank in the European democracy. We cannot protect our physical integrity. As small towns, every day we're exposed to threats, as well as our families. We receive hostile reactions from citizens and often threats of physical violence. Democracy stops where we need to be protected from our own citizens. Horses in Germany is a town where the mayor has received many threats and recent events in France confirm this. We need guidance on how we can react to these sort of events. Thank you. Member Alex Dorau, one minute. President. President, at the time where information is very easy, accessible, and it spreads very rapidly, of course we have an enormous flood of information and we're faced with conscious manipulation of this which undermines trust in our society and influences our opinions. So this kind of information essentially comes from right and left extremism. And of course this can have a horrible impact on elections, encouraging hate, and destabilizing the situation. So it's up to the regions to recognize this and approach it in order fashion. For example, as a representative of Bavaria, I expect more involvement in training people in how to use the media. And Bavaria is already supporting regional projects in media competence. So let the regions work against this destabilization. One minute. Mr. President, Madam Commissioner, the membership in the European Union is not only about financial benefits, but it's above all about respect for democracy and human rights. Locals of government is the closest to citizens and we are also among beneficiaries of EU support. This is why we are especially responsible for providing valid information about the European Union at the local level, also including values of this community. We have decided in referendum to join the European Union and we want to continue along this way. The Brexit experience indicates very clearly that it is in our own common interest to fight this information and to ensure that the messages targeting citizens are valid and just. We need to ensure resilience for the future and security. Thank you. Thank you. I consider that the European Committee of the Regions embraced, for example, the spirit of last year's European Year of Youth. The municipalities have a very important role in fostering youth participation and bringing Europe closer to its young people. Special efforts need to be made to reach young people who normally do not participate, those who are marginalized. By recognizing the unique perspective concerns and contribution of young people, local and regional authorities can empower youth and enable them to be active participants in the strategic communication efforts surrounding the European Parliament elections. Involving youth in the process not only ensures their voice are heard but also cultivate a sense of ownership and engagement in the democratic process leading to more inclusive and representative European Union. Thank you. Bereni, one minute. Thank you, Mr. President. Madam Commissioner, to protect our democratic values, we must ensure freedom of speech, help people understand the media better and encourage critical thinking. This is especially important in Slovakia, where research showed that about 56% of the Slovak citizens believes in conspiracy theories. We must also protect national minorities. In Tarnava region, where I come from, there is a significant Hungarian and Roma minority. Everyone should have the same opportunities because only then democracy and the EU membership could be widely enjoyed. By working together to include everyone and respect their rights, we can protect and strengthen democracy. Our regions, cities, and villages are the building blocks of democracy representing the dreams and the needs of the local people. Without successful and democratic regions, cities, and villages, there is no strong European Union. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Glucksmann, you have the floor for final remarks three minutes. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you to everyone for your extremely important comments. I'd like to pick up on what Mr. Bjenny said. So there will be no strong European democracy without strong local democracy. When we have disinformation interference, we are all faced with a choice. We can either turn in on ourselves and the impact that will have for our democracy or we maintain our democracy open. We understand how others such as in Taiwan that we need to fight interference. The way to do so is to cultivate to civil participation in public life. In order to do so, we need massive investments and we also need to change it to local level and the European level. We need to change in institutions and to change in mentality. We need to have much higher levels of participation in public life. Moreover, we also need to give ourselves the tools to address this. We need to have penalties against this and we need the penalties need to be much stronger, not only sanctions against Vladimir Putin. What are we going to do to those states who try to corrupt our elite or try and provide disinformation currently these penalties are very weak. We also need to be a lot harder with those individuals who are in our political systems, those who are responsible for a foreign interference. A number of you have mentioned the risk of the far right. We need to say it and we need to say it clearly. All the individuals who hide behind patriotism are those who have been hiding behind the protection of Vladimir Putin for decades. They have been acting against the aims and needs of our states. We need to finally come to a situation together. We need to reinvigorate democracy. It needs to be done at a local level and also to European level. We need to fight authoritarianism, xenophobia, which we have a collective responsibility to fight together. We need to be enthusiastic and passionate about our democracy. We need to be proud of the fact that we belong to European democracy. Madam Vice President, you have the floor for final remarks for five minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President, and thank you all for a very inspiring debate. And I took a lot of notes as the presidency is here, so maybe you are concerned about my five minutes, but I will manage. I will try to be short, because in many of your contributions, we heard the word disinformation. And in many of your contributions, we heard that we have to be more efficient in fighting this phenomenon, which is not new, but it got its power through the internet and social media. We discussed here about disinformation in light or in connection with the protection of democracy. I want to say that it must not be the case for European democracy that disinformation in political competition will be winning. In other words, lying must not be the winner in European elections or national elections. And that's why I want to explain that the measures we are taking against this information do not contain censorship, because some of you said that this is about, also about the protection of freedom of speech, and I fully subscribe to it. Our angle, how we look at the need to do something against disinformation is security and protection of elections. And when I have not enough time, but I will tell you six things which we find important to happen in a systemic fight against disinformation. I will not surprise you. The first point for me is to be telling the people the truth and to be clear and to communicate better, because the fact that the disinformers are using social media in such an efficient way, it has to be lessened for us and to do the same thing, but equip the people with trustworthy information. And simply in our communication to count with the existence of disinformation. And it's not so difficult to predict what the disinformers will invent. I think that we should be first informing people. The second, what we do with the platforms, we are pushing them to increase capacities to do the proper fact checking, because disinformation is very far by lie. We speak about facts. We don't speak about opinions. So we want the platforms to increase the fact checking in all languages. We want them also to do much more against the Russian war propaganda, because we are in information war. The third thing, demonetize the disinformers. And we are in a very intense communication with the advertising industry to stop the funding of disinformation systems and not to send the ads representing or showing their brands to such systems. The fourth, education. And here, of course, you have it also in your hands to a very large extent. And I think that only through awareness raising and education, we will get to the point that when the people will have the tools to think twice, whether to send things further or whether they are not fed up by manipulation. I think that we also need to see the society being more resilient. Fifth, action of law enforcement, because many pieces of disinformation fulfill the qualification of the crime, especially the alerting, panicking news messages or the disinformation which has the potential to incite violence. So this is for the law enforcement to go after the cases. And the sixth point, to have strong, professional, very well functioning independent media in every member state. So this is the plan. And so once again, in European plan to fight against disinformation, it's not about censorship. It's not about removing the content. Now on two more topics. Madame Magyar spoke about the Hungarian people. We fully recognize the will of Hungarian people who showed their will in the elections. And that's why, because the people, be it Hungarian people or any other citizens, are in the driving seat of our democratic system. We need to have guaranteed in all the member states that the elections are free and fair. And that, for instance, the media in each country can work in full independence, including the public service media. Also, I will stay in Hungary. Yes, I am concerned about the decreasing number, a percentage of trust of Hungarian people towards the EU. But I am not surprised, because after the permanent campaign which the government is organizing against the EU, I don't wonder that the trust of people is going down. And that's why also I want to say that I am personally not happy about the blocking of Erasmus funding for Hungarian students. And I think that we should do something against that. This is also partly or to a large extent in the hands of Hungarian government and Hungarian authorities. And we work with them because I think that Hungarian students should have equal possibility to travel to study abroad. And last comment on EU funds. I saved 17 seconds before at the beginning. So... You're spent already 40. Yeah, I know. But this will be very short comment which will be sent to Poland. Thank you, Mr. Ortel and Mr. Gjablewicz and Alexander Dworkiewicz, all the comments from the side of the Polish colleagues. I want to say on EU funding. EU funding is not and has never been unconditional. There have always been conditions. And according to our rules, the EU funding cannot go into the hands of those who do not respect the Charter of Fundamental Rights and to those who are not able to protect the EU money against corruption or fraud. These are the conditions, these are the rules which are valid for all the member states. And I think that this is very important that we stick to the rules. I was quick, but I needed that one minute more. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam... Thank you. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Thank you, Mr. Kluksman. I know you're in a tight schedule. So thank you so much for being with us and sharing your thoughts. Thank you. Have a nice day. Now the floor goes to the Rapporteur. I think the Rapporteur... The Rapporteur? Three minutes. Sir Ducznie Paisman. Thank you very much for this debate and for your comments and observations. The sharing of information, exchanging of information of individual member state regions and cities is extremely important because it contributes to new initiatives combating disinformation. Thus, we are not passive and we do not allow anyone to undermine the foundations of our democracy and we build resilient local communities. I hope that the recommendations that are included in this opinion will be an inspiration for your further efforts and new initiatives aimed at counteracting manipulation and disinformation. I do believe that this will translate into specific actions which will yield specific benefits in maintaining and building democracy. Thank you very much. I'm the one who thank you. Let's go to vote on the opinion.