15-16 October: High-Level Conference on election security: "Election Interference in the Digital Age – Building Resilience to Cyber-Enabled Threats"

The news:

On 15 and 16 October Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King i, in collaboration with the European Commission's Security Union Task Force and the European Political Strategy Centre, is organising a High-Level Conference on ‘Election Interference in the Digital Age: Building Resilience to Cyber-Enabled Threats'. The High-Level Conference will gather leading experts and political figures from around the world to discuss questions relating to election security and how best to tackle the associated challenges, particularly in view of the upcoming 2019 European Parliament elections.

The background:

The European elections in May 2019 will take place in a very different political and legal environment compared to the previous vote in 2014. All actors involved in the elections, in particular Member State authorities and political parties, have to assume responsibility to protect the democratic process from interference and manipulation.

Over the past years, the Commission has taken a number of legislative measures to that end, including strengthening our data protection rules, reinforcing cybersecurity and building resilience against hybrid threats. In his 2018 State of the Union Address, President Jean-Claude Juncker i underlined that we must maintain our free and fair elections and proposed new rules to better protect our democratic processes from manipulation by third countries or private interests.

The High-Level Conference will provide an opportunity to discuss those challenges and how to address them, including the measures announced by President Juncker.

The event:

The Conference - organised by the European Political Strategy Centre, the European Commission's in-house think tank, under the auspices and in collaboration with the European Commissions' Security Union Task Force - will take place in the European Commission's headquarters (Berlaymont building, Rue de la Loi 200, Brussels) over two days: Monday 15 October 2018, from 14h00 to 19h00, and Tuesday 16 October 2018, from 09h00 to 13h00.

Speakers already confirmed include Commissioner for Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos i; Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová i; Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King; and Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel i.

The event is open to journalists. For more information and accreditation please contact: Katarzyna.Kolanko@ec.europa.eu and Ulrik-Trolle.SMED@ec.europa.eu.

The sources:

European Political Strategy Centre - "Election Interference in the Digital Age: Building Resilience to Cyber-Enabled Threats"

Press Release - State of the Union 2018: European Commission proposes measures for securing free and fair European elections

AGENDA/18/5869