Our World in 2018

EUROPE’S FUTURE
Make Europe
Popular again
By Antonio López-Istúriz White
A
vote and fake news. These are two
common traits shared by Brexit, the
US and French elections and the
fake referendum in Catalonia. A vote is the
highest expression of democracy while fake
news is its lowest.
And democracy cannot stand without
well-informed citizens. A number of
elections will take place in 2018 – in Cyprus,
Finland, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden,
Ireland, Latvia and Luxembourg, among
others. Unfortunately, the risk is high that
fake news will overshadow them.
Fight the fake with facts
Online platforms and social media have
provided people with new ways to connect,
engage, debate and spread information
at a level never seen before. At the same
time, the current scale of disinformation is
unprecedented.
We need to reconstruct and empower
traditional media by supporting them in
the new digital reality. More than ever, our
societies need professional, independent,
ethical, investigative and fact-based
journalism where freedom of speech and
information uphold our plurality of views.
Social media companies also need to take
their responsibility as platforms that can
spread fake news.
On the side of the user, the citizens need
to be able to detect fake news. This can start
at school where children can be made aware
of fake news and develop critical-thinking
skills. That applies to adults too, who must
be alert and vigilant towards sources of
information and verify their reliability. Fake
news must be replaced by fact news.
Antonio
López-Istúriz
White
Antonio López-Istúriz
White is Secretary-
General of the
European People’s
Party and Member
of the European
Parliament of the
Spanish centre-right
People’s Party (Partido
Popular). He is also
Secretary Treasurer of
the Wilfried Martens
Centre for European
Studies and the
Secretary-General of
the Centrist Democrat
International.
Fight the fake with acts
Populists use fake news as a weapon
to undermine democracy. Propaganda,
misinformation campaigns, support for
anti-European political forces are all part
of their arsenal to spread lies and create
chaos, especially in electoral times. The
European Union (EU) has never been a more
successful scapegoat.
.R
the myths. Concrete proposals to uncover
specious words. Real change instead of
false tomorrows. The EU must act where it
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security, migration, defence, the economy,
globalisation, digitalisation or climate
change call for European leadership and
common solutions. Each euro must be
spent to improve the lives of the European
citizens.
On this, the European Union is already
delivering results, such as the end of
roaming fees in the EU, its commitment to
common defence, the introduction of the
European Pillar of Social Rights and the
youth employment initiative.
The European Union is also a beacon of
values in the world. Without the EU, which
values would we follow? Those represented
by China? By Russia? To protect our way of
life and our standards, the EU must continue
to be a global player. Europe is a continent
of pioneers and discoveries. To keep this
position in the world, talents must stay in
Europe and be attracted by it.
As the European economy is growing, it is
time to plan for tomorrow and prepare for
.
be in people, especially the youth. We need
to train people to acquire skills due to the
pace of digitalisation and the ageing work
force. Among those who need to gain new
skills, politicians are not exempt.
Fight the fake with heart
Populists moved from empty promises to
false words: they have disrupted the way
of communicating in politics. And they
have managed to do so because European
citizens feel distant from the European
project. There is a lesson in there for
16 2018 | OUR WORLD