German launch event for “Understanding our political nature”

Join the virtual launch event with prominent German speakers from academia and policymaking discussing the question: How do we ensure sound political decision-making that takes into account scientific evidence in times of high political and societal pressure?

The discussion will revolve around the study “Understanding our political nature”, published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), now available in German.

Download the

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Webstreaming

The session will take place from 10:30 to 12:00 and will be webstreamed live

Key topics of the report

• Misperception and Disinformation
• Collective Intelligence
• Emotions
• Values and Identities
• Framing, Metaphor and Narrative
• Trust and Openness
• Evidence-informed policymaking

Speakers

• Jörg Wojahn (Head of European Commission Representation, Berlin)
• Dr Malte Petersen (Federal German Chancellery)
• Dr Stefanie Ettelt (Prognos & London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)
• Professor Kai Wegrich (Hertie School)
• Dr Mario Scharfbillig (Evidence-informed policymaking, JRC)

Short agenda

• 10’ Welcome and introduction from the national co-host, national relevance scene-setting (EU Representation)
• 20’ Presentation of the report & Enlightenment 2.0 research programme (JRC)
• 30’ Panel – Introduction & 3 x 7 minute intervention from each panellist
• 30’ Q&A session – mixture of moderator Qs & interactive with participants

Background

The pandemic has shown that the idea of evidence-informed policymaking is threatened. We have realised how susceptible we are to being misled and that political decisions are sometimes determined by factors which are not yet properly understood.

Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, responsible for the JRC, underlines the importance of evidence-informed decision-making when saying: “Science and evidence are at the heart of the actions we are taking to build a greener, fairer and more digital Europe that’s fit to face the challenges of the future. But we cannot take that for granted. The Joint Research Centre is helping us to better understand the drivers behind political behavior and decision-making, so we can make sure that policy choices are made with the best available evidence, benefiting everyone in Europe.”

While the original report was published in 2019, the pandemic has given renewed relevance to many of the issues discussed. This is why the report has been translated into German, French, Spanish and Italian. For each of the countries, the JRC is organising a launch event. After the events, the translated reports will be published on this website.

Contact

In case of questions, please contact the JRC via JRC-ENLIGHTENMENT2@ec.europa.eu

For media enquiries please email JRC-PRESS@ec.europa.eu

Related Content

Understanding our political nature

Vorstellung und Diskussion des Reports „Unser politisches Verhalten verstehen“

Venue

Online, EU