Codrin Scutaru’s Post

🚀Polpo | Slimme Politieke Monitor is expanding to Brussels: Introducing the political monitoring platform for the EU! ⭐ We are thrilled to announce the launch of Polpo EU, the smartest way to stay on top of numerous political sources in Brussels, fully automated, quick and accurate powered by AI. After successfully building a robust presence in the Netherlands, we are now setting our sights on the EU stage. Polpo EU: ✅ Streamline essential and personalised political updates directly from EU institutions, stakeholders, and top media sources. ✅ Dive into an enriched policy archive with data from previously published EU documents, providing deeper insights and historical context into your political topics. ✅ Keep your entire organisation informed with alerts and our customisable newsletter feature. Are you involved in public affairs and closely following political developments in Brussels? Let’s connect! Feel free to schedule a meeting with our EU relations expert, Pauline van der Geld.

Short considerations about the hopes you have in the usefulness of the vote, European in case of species. _______________________ The number of interest groups and companies seeking to influence EU policies has grown significantly over the past two decades alongside the increase in EU regulatory competencies. No one knows the exact number of interest groups and companies present in Brussels, not to mention the vast number of national interest groups present on the continent and tend to influence the policies of the prediction indirectly. The so-called "Joint Transparency Register of The European Commission and the European Parliament" has over 10,000 registered organizations (many of which are multinationals), equivalent to over 12 lobbying organizations for a single elected parliamentarian. I’ll say it again: for each elected European Parliamentarian there are over 12 organizations that do lobbying activity (and we are only considering registered ones). To these, we add the components of the permanent representations in member states, those of regional public authorities and those of diplomatic missions of non-EU governments, which makes it practically impossible to quantify the exact number of stakeholders lobbying activities in European institutions. And you, anonymous and honest citizen of Vizzolo Predabissi, do you think that your vote given to a guy you have never seen live in your life, belonging to a party on which dynamics you have no say, could it serve for what exactly? https://lnkd.in/dKv9TctB

Congrats to AMO - Association for International Affairs on informative conference Czech Eastern policy! Thanks to Veronika Víchová from Centrum pro informovanou společnost for her views on and engagement for informed society. And 🙏 to Viliam Ostatnik for moderating our panel discussion. Europeans had the opportunity to shape the future of the European Union when they went to the polls on 6 – 9 June to elect the next European Parliament. The European Commission made it a key priority to address potential threats to the elections and thereby strengthen the resilience of the Union's democratic systems. Today, we have an additional tool at our disposal in the fight against online disinformation: the Digital Services Act (DSA). This is our new landmark regulation to restore trust and safety in the online space, addressing systemic risks such as disinformation, and protect the integrity of electoral processes. More on tackling online disinformation: https://lnkd.in/e5krYJQ4

With the announcement in September by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, of the proposed College of Commissioners for the 2024-2029 term of office, came a change in the structure of the Commission. Commissioners would report to assigned Executive Vice-Presidents who, in turn, report to President von der Leyen. A new paper by Institute of International and European Affairs Researcher, Dylan Marshall, examines this proposed new structure from a political and a policy perspective. It explores the top echelon of Executive Vice-Presidents and the relative importance of the clusters of Commissioners who report to them. Analysing the role of the cabinets in terms of political influence and effectiveness, it also looks at the new Commission structures in terms of their relative importance for Ireland. You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/eZu2h9JA This paper is part of the #FutureProofingEurope project, supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland

Many #EUGoodReads curated here indeed to understand just how democratic the EU actually is, to grasp the threats to democracy we see every day, to help us defend democracy and more. We certainly cannot take what we have built over 70+ years for granted. The alarm bells are already ringing loudly! Brexit has been a massive wake up call for all. Malicious foreign actors are working tirelessly to weaken this remarkable European Union that we Europeans can call a safe home and a beacon of peace, stability and democracy. These hostile actors we know too well now are also trying to weaken our national democracies too, across every possible sphere and domain of society. Also very troubling is the realisation that not only lawmakers, but our societies lack key awareness. Our public debates, legislation and individual engagement are not at the levels necessary to effectively counter foreign interference. We need to act fast. Voting already at #EUElections2024, and voting responsibly, will already be a big step!

The #EuropeanParliament has just re-elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the #EuropeanCommission. Explore expert thoughts on how to protect and strengthen democracy in the new institutional term👇 -  📕 Europe’s Democracy Catch-22: Is There a Way Out? The post-election context has been dominated by the structure of pro-EU parties vs. far-right forces. Richard Youngs argues that a third approach might be a way to move the EU forward from the binary debate on whether to engage or isolate the far right.  Find out more on Carnegie Europe 👉 https://lnkd.in/e4zPPz8h - 📗 A Post-election Opportunity for the Rule of Law  With their majority in the parliament, pro-rule of law parties now have an opportunity to strengthen the rule of law. The key question is whether they can transform their pledges into tangible results. Commentary by Pablo Castillo-Ortiz 👉 https://lnkd.in/e6dGNbcu - 📘 A Call to Defend Democracy If the EU is not prepared to take bold steps, commitments to democracy will remain mere rhetoric. Richard Youngs outlines policy ideas for operationalising these democracy commitments. Available on European Endowment for Democracy (EED) 👉 https://lnkd.in/eZrJZb7Y. - 📙 A Democracy Shield for Europe?  In her proposed political guidelines, Ursula von der Leyen proposes a Democracy Shield to protect the EU from malign foreign interference. Richard Youngs and Elene Panchulidze argue that the proposal only looks at the surface level of democracy problems and not the root causes. 👉 https://lnkd.in/d7iMhAXJ -  📨 If you want more expert insights on democracy support, subscribe to our newsletter https://lnkd.in/emy-6rDS

We have joined the Team Europe Democracy (TED) Network! The Team Europe Democracy (TED) Initiative is a global thematic Team Europe Initiative (TEI), launched in December 2021 by EU Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen to promote democracy and human rights worldwide. The initiative includes 14 EU Member States 🇦🇹 🇧🇪 🇭🇷 🇨🇿🇩🇰🇫🇮🇫🇷🇩🇪🇮🇪🇵🇱🇳🇱🇸🇰🇪🇸🇸🇪 and the most important implementing partners of the EU and EU member states, from now on also ECES. The network is composed therefore by civil society organizations or networks, think tanks, research centers, and universities based in Europe and engaged in promoting democracy and human rights worldwide. The specific objective is to create a coordinated strategic European response in support of democracy that is effectively steered worldwide by the TED Secretariat, which is composed by staff members the German and Belgian Development Cooperation Agencies (GIZ and ENABEL), in close cooperation with the TED Coordinator of the Directorate General for International Partnership of the European Commission. The TED Network has been created to facilitate exchanging information and engaging in frequent strategic dialogue. It enhances cross-regional collaboration on democracy support and will support joint initiatives on the TED thematic priorities which are. 1) Accountability and Rule of Law 2) Political and Civic Participation 3) Media and Digital. ECES will contribute by actively participating and sharing our comparative experiences within the groups dedicated to “Political and Civic Participation” and “Media and Digital”. We are very grateful to the EU, GIZ and ENABEL for the trust on ECES that confirms the good work we are doing in facilitating the electoral cooperation between the EU, EU member states and their partner countries requesting democracy and electoral support. This is the main rationale and reason for which we have created ECES and our main goal since 2010. We will therefore spare no efforts to provide our best contribution. Grazie mille ancora. European Commission European Parliament Council of the European Union European External Action Service Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri Ministère des Affaires étrangères français Agence Française de Développement Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione InternazionaleBundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten (MFA Austria) KfW hashtag #eces hashtag #eces4electoralsupport hashtag #electoralsupport

💡 New #cepSeries on the #MissionLetter to the new #Commissioners! Between the 4th and 12th of November, the candidates for the upcoming European Commission 2024-2029 will be closely scrutinised by the members of the European Parliament. During these #confirmation #hearings, the #Commissioners-designate will have to answers questions on #EU initiatives outlined by the #Commission President Ursula von the Leyen in her Political Guidelines and #MissionLetters to the new #Commissioners. In the run-up of the #hearings, the Centrum für Europäische Politik issued today a series of six #cepInputs on the candidates, portfolios and important EU initiatives which will shape the future EU policies in the next mandate. If you are interested in those #cepInputs you may find them here: https://lnkd.in/edc759zv I participated in writing two of the six #cepinputs: 📣 Together with my colleagues Anselm Küsters, Matthias Kullas and Anja Hoffmann from the Centrum für Europäische Politik I have taken a closer look at the mission letters dealing with the EU’s digital policy ambitions in the years to come. You may find this #cepInput here: https://lnkd.in/eEHtytJW 📣 In another #cepInput I considered more closely the #EU’s plans outlined in the #missionletters in the #financialmarkets sphere. It touches upon topics like the idea of creating a #savingsandinvestmentsunion, the review of the EU’s #securitisation framework, the way forward in #sustainablefinance, and the plans to make targeted changes to the EU’s #supervisoryframework with regard to financial markets actors. The #cepInput on this topic can be found here: https://lnkd.in/ebmzYwUc

Short considerations about the hopes you have in the usefulness of the vote, European in case of species. _______________________ The number of interest groups and companies seeking to influence EU policies has grown significantly over the past two decades alongside the increase in EU regulatory competencies. No one knows the exact number of interest groups and companies present in Brussels, not to mention the vast number of national interest groups present on the continent and tend to influence the policies of the prediction indirectly. The so-called "Joint Transparency Register of The European Commission and the European Parliament" has over 10,000 registered organizations (many of which are multinationals), equivalent to over 12 lobbying organizations for a single elected parliamentarian. I’ll say it again: for each elected European Parliamentarian there are over 12 organizations that do lobbying activity (and we are only considering registered ones). To these, we add the components of the permanent representations in member states, those of regional public authorities and those of diplomatic missions of non-EU governments, which makes it practically impossible to quantify the exact number of stakeholders lobbying activities in European institutions. And you, anonymous and honest citizen of Vizzolo Predabissi, do you think that your vote given to a guy you have never seen live in your life, belonging to a party on which dynamics you have no say, could it serve for what exactly?

Proud to have contributed to this important study that manages to quantify, index and ground in empirical proof what often escapes measurable analysis: manipulating narratives while mixing both true and false information and ideologized mal-information, in this case against the EU by the right wing mainstream of EU candidate countries. By ISD- Berlin.