Will the rule of law and democracy survive the rise of technology?

We live in a time when algorithms decide what we see, whom we trust, and how we vote – and most of us don’t even realize it.

The lecture will address pressing issues that are rarely discussed openly: how deepfakes and AI-driven campaigns undermine trust in elections, why democracy is losing its footing, and why populists and autocrats benefit from this.

But it won’t stop at diagnosis – Ms. Věra Jourová will present concrete tools Europe is using to respond to these threats and outline what democracy could look like if we manage to modernize it before it’s too late.

Who is Věra Jourová

Věra Jourová is the former vice president of the European Commission for Values and Transparency (2019–2024), where she focused on democracy, the rule of law, and media freedom. In the previous term (2014–2019), she served as European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. Before joining Brussels, she was the Czech minister for regional development and worked for over seven years as an international consultant on EU fund financing, including projects in Western Balkan countries aspiring to join the union.

Since 2025, she has been an advisor on foreign policy to President Petr Pavel. She is also active as a commissioner for the Club de Madrid, a member of the ethics committee of the European Central Bank, and part of the advisory board of GLOBSEC. She has worked at Charles University, overseeing human resources development, new technologies, and external relations.

She studied law and cultural theory at Charles University. For her contributions to protecting the rule of law and democracy, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Łódź.