ALDE Party Secretary General Didrik de Schaetzen joined the latest episode of Euronews’ weekly talk show “Brussels my love?” to look ahead to a year marked by elections and a leap in artificial intelligence across Europe and beyond. 

The panel of three discussed the run-up to the European elections on 6-9 June, including the election campaign, voter turnout and seat projections, as well as the presidential elections in the United States later this year. 

de Schaetzen highlighted the strong mandate that liberals were able to secure at the last European elections in 2019 and shared his hopes and ambitions for when Europeans will return to the polls in June. 

2024 - Europe's elections year
"People start to realise the importance of the EU" @DdeSchaetzen
"It's easier for citizens to vote against the idea of Europe" @profAndreaRenda
"Brussels is the view from 30,000 feet" @mediawhizz

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— euronews (@euronews) January 5, 2024

“We have the experience of having to facilitate between two parties that don’t cooperate as much, so being kingmakers is really in our DNA. It’s a very comfortable position to be in and it’s really important for us to keep it; the power we’ve had during this term gives us great responsibility for the next one,” he said. 

The show also tackled the issue of artificial intelligence, following the agreement reached by EU institutions on the AI Act in December which paves the way for the world’s first horizontal regulation on the subject. 

de Schaetzen underlined liberals’ strong proactivity on the regulation with the work of European Commissioners Věra Jourová and Thierry Breton and hailed the legislation as a good compromise between total freedom and strict regulation. 

Artificial Intelligence - The EU sets the first rulebook in the world

"It's imperfect, it's a compromise" @DdeSchaetzen

"The EU should have closed the AI act but it has experienced a FOMO" @profAndreaRenda

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“It is a compromise, it is imperfect, but it guarantees the freedom to still be able to use AI in the field. This is one example where we set frames with the information we have now, so we don’t exaggerate in over-regulating but we also don’t leave it fully free and manage to protect the freedoms,” he said. 

You can watch the full episode of “Brussels my love?” below.