Article - Coming up: Covid-19 variants, data protection, AI

On Monday the environment and public health committee discusses the effectiveness of vaccines against new Covid-19 variants with experts from the European Medicines Agency, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the World Health Organization.

The General Data Protection Regulation entered into two force two years ago to give Europeans more control over how their online data gets used. On Tuesday, the civil liberties committee will consider possible improvements and challenges to the legislation. Issues include the use of the rules by data protection authorities against journalists and non-governmental organisations.

Digital issues are on the agenda of the culture and education committee on Tuesday when committee members vote on an own-initiative report on the use of artificial intelligence in culture, education and the audiovisual sector. The report mainly looks at legal and ethical issues.

On Thursday, the economic and monetary affairs committee will discuss how to deal with the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic with Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank.

A seminar on how to respond to disinformation takes place on Wednesday. Lead MEPs and experts will discuss how disinformation is undermining trust in democracy in the EU and the US. Christopher Krebs, the formder director of the US Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency, will give the keynote speech. Watch the event here.