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The war in Ukraine is being fought also in the cyber space. We discussed the key takeaways that can be drawn from the conflict so far with Ginny Badanes, Microsoft’s senior director of the Democracy Forward.

The Von der Leyen Commission recently passed its mid-term. With Andrea Garcia Rodriguez, the lead digital policy analyst at the European Policy Centre, we discussed what the EU executive has achieved in this first half of the mandate and potential perspectives for the future.

Scandinavian countries are well-known for having their own approach to social affairs. As regulating the working conditions of platform workers is now an hot topic in Brussels, we got a non-EU perspective to the issue in this discussion with Norway’s Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion, Marte Mjøs Persen.

Measures addressing copyright infringements are often a hot topic in EU digital policies. We discussed what is the state of play and trends in the EU with Alexandra Poch, Deputy Director of the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights, Julio Laporta, Head of Communication and Spokesperson at the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

EURACTIV caught up with the Czech Deputy Prime Minister for Digitisation, Ivan Bartoš, directly from Luxembourg during the Telecoms Council. We discussed the approach of the upcoming Czech Presidency to the open questions of the AI Act and Data Act, two of the main digital file Prague will have to deal with. We also discussed the telecoms’ ‘fair share’ proposal and the never-ending ePrivacy Regulation.  

The European commission has unveiled on 11 May its long-awaited proposal to fight against child sexual abuse material online, or CSAM in short. While children’s organisations have been receiving this regulation very well, it also sparked a lot on concerns for privacy defenders, worried that the provision forcing tech platforms to scan the communications of their users to detect CSAM would lead to an indiscriminate and disproportionate intrusion into our lives and would undermine encryption.   This week, Dan Sexton, the chief technical officer at the Internet Watch Foundation, a British child safety nonprofit, and Ella Jakubowska, a policy advisor at the European Digitals Rights network, joined the podcast to discuss the proposal.

Alexandra Paulus, Fellow for International Cybersecurity Policy with the German think tank Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, explains what cyber norms are, who shapes them and whether Germany is actually practising what it preaches. 

The EU legislators have just reached an agreement on the revised Network and Information Security Directive (NIS2), flagship cybersecurity legislation. We caught up with the European Parliament’s rapporteur Bart Groothuis straight out of the trilogue to get all the details on the political deal.

This week, Commissioner Breton announced a new initiative to make online platforms contribute to the cost of digital infrastructure. We discuss the reasoning behind this proposal, possible precedents and main practical issues that it will need to address with Gerard Pogorel, Professor of Economics-Emeritus at Telecom Paris, and Innocenzo Genna, ICT legal expert.

A new Trade and Technology Council between the EU and India has been announced as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited New Delhi this week for the relaunch of long-stalled negotiations on a trade deal. We discuss what we know and can expect from this initiative with our Global Europe & Defence Reporter Alexandra Brzozowski, who was in India to cover the summit.

The DSA is approaching a final agreement in inter institutional negotiations. We discuss key aspects of the flagship legislation with Tanya O'Carroll, an independent expert coordinating the People vs Big Tech coalition. On the menu: content moderation, risk assessment, recommender systems, dark patterns and targeted advertising.

As the European Parliament is preparing to discuss the first draft of the AI Act, we took a critical look at the proposal with Lilian Edwards, professor at the University of Newcastle and expert legal adviser at the Ada Lovelace Institute. We touched upon the overall approach of the proposal, the role of users, high-risk systems and risk assessment.

China has sought to position itself as neutral in relation to the war in Ukraine but recent analysis by EUvsDisinfo notes substantial alignment with the Kremlin when it comes to the messaging being shared by the country’s state-backed media. This week’s podcast looks more closely at this alignment: the common narratives, how they’re being shared and where the two countries diverge.

Last week, the EU co-legislators reached an agreement on the Digital Markets Act (DMA), landmark legislation targeting the largest tech companies. We discuss the key points of the file with the European Parliament’s rapporteur Andreas Schwab.

London has been working on several laws and initiatives with potentially profound implications for its data protection regime. We discuss how these different pieces might come together and impact the EU’s data adequacy decision with Robert Bateman, head of content at GRC World Forums, and Wayne Cleghorn, CEO and Practice Director at Privacy Solved.

The Russian attack on Ukraine went hand in hand with coordinated attacks in the information space. We discuss the situation on the ground and the EU response with Domen Savič, CEO of Citizen D.

France, the country currently at the helm of the EU Council, is heading towards crucial elections next month. We discuss with EURACTIV France reporter Mathieu Pollet the role digital issues play in the presidential campaign, the impact of the Ukrainian conflict and any potential changes in the handling of EU files due to digital minister Cedric O stepping down.

Cyberattacks are hardly limited to one country in an interconnected world. We discuss the impact of Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine on European companies with dr Vera Demary,  head of digitalization at the German economic institute, and Iva Tasheva, cybersecurity consultant at CyEn.

Google experimenting with its Privacy Sandbox, Facebook blaming Apple for a massive loss of revenues, pending EU legislation. The world of digital advertising is changing fast, with plenty of moving parts. We discuss the topic with Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next.

The EU has a growing base of startups but in a market so large and diverse, accessing funding can present a key challenge. In this episode, Thanos Paraschos, co-founder of the European Startup Universe, and Robbert van der Meer, co-founder and CEO of bFlex, discuss the obstacles faced by startups and how creating networks to link entrepreneurs and investors could help to address them.