Moderator:

Norbert KERSTING, University of Münster, Germany

Professor Norbert Kersting holds the chair for Comparative Politics, Local and Regional Governance at the Department of Political Science at the University of Muenster (Germany). He previously held the “Chair on Democratic Transformation” at the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and was a fellow at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Marburg. He organizes the Direct Democracy Integrity Index and was the founding chair of the International Political Science Association’s (IPSA) Research Committee 10 on “Electronic Democracy.” His research focuses on comparative democratic innovations and on online and offline participation, referendums, and e-democracy.

Panel:

Ximena Stefani DOCARMO COHAILA, Co-Head of the Accelerator, Apolitical Foundation, Germany

KUWAHARA Kyoko, Japan Institute of International Affairs, Japan

Anna RENKAMP, Senior Project Manager, Democracy and Cohesion, Bertelsmann Foundation, Germany

Bruce SCHNEIER, Harvard Kennedy School, United States of America

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a "security guru" by the Economist. He is the New York Times best-selling author of 14 books -- including A Hacker's Mind -- as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter Crypto-Gram and blog Schneier on Security are read by over 250,000 people. Schneier is a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and AccessNow, and an advisory board member of EPIC and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc.

Geart FERHATI, I-Vote, Albania

Discussant:

Youth Delegation

Gloria MANNAZZU, Senior Project Officer, Communications for the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025