European Commission

Meeting T. Jagland in Davos

On Wednesday I promised to keep you updated on my meeting today in Davos with Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.

As I expected, it was a very fruitful meeting. We discussed the developments regarding media freedom in Hungary after last years’ intervention by the European Commission , the critical report by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Mr. Hammarberg and the ruling by the Constitutional Court last December.

We agreed that Hungary needs to act quickly to reassure all those who have concerns, to show that it is serious about protecting freedom of expression and media pluralism.

Mr. Jagland confirmed to me that the Council of Europe is ready to play its role and to prepare a comprehensive opinion on the media legislation and its application in practice – if or when Hungary would request such an assessment.

But of course that would just be a first step. The most important thing would be that the authorities would commit to accept and implement any concrete recommendations that would be made by the Council of Europe, which has been setting standards for fundamental rights protection in Europe for over half a century!

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I meet Soe Thein, Myanmar Industry Minister

Today, also while in Davos, I met Myanmar Industry Minister Soe Thein, one of those supporting the current reform agenda. He heads Myanmar’s investment commission and is a key political actor shaping economic reform and liberalisation.

There is currently very encouraging progress in political, economic and social reforms in Myanmar, changes which will help developing relations with the EU. We welcome the release of political prisoners. But of course, we have other important expectations – like free and fair elections on 1 April, the release of remaining political prisoners, and conciliation with the various ethnic groups. Read the full entry

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I "friend" Sheryl

While at the World Economic Forum in Davos this morning, I had an important discussion with Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook; we talked about protecting children, and new data protection rules.

One of my priorities under the Digital Agenda is to ensure that children use new technologies in the safest way possible to learn, play, communicate and be creative. Facebook is already one of the parties to the EU’s Safer Social Networking Principles. But keeping children safe online is a shared responsibility, for all sectoral players, wherever they lie along the value chain – they all have a role to play, depending on how their devices or services engage with children as users. Read the full entry

Number of views: 1596