Of Pride and platforms: enr interview with EU Commissioner Michael McGrath

A conversation with EU Commissioner Michael McGrath has continued the series of interviews conducted by the European Newsroom (enr) with high-ranking EU representatives. The 48-year-old politician from Ireland, responsible within the EU Commission for democracy, justice, the rule of law, and consumer protection, took 45 minutes in the Berlaymont building in Brussels to engage with a group of eight journalists from agencies involved in the enr project.

The correspondents had a great number of questions. The focus was primarily on issues of the rule of law in individual EU countries. Special attention was given to Hungary, where just a few days earlier, tens of thousands of people had participated in a Pride parade advocating for LGBTIQ+ rights. The Hungarian government had banned this demonstration and expressed strong criticism towards EU representatives who sided with the protesters. McGrath clearly rejected this criticism in the interview.

Other topics included the announced “Democracy Shield” from the EU Commission and, in the area of consumer protection, the measures to protect minors when gaming online. McGrath also talked in detail about how the EU plans to manage and regulate the enormous influx of extremely cheap and sometimes dangerous product imports from China in the future.

Participating agencies included APA (Austria), ANSA (Italy), CTK (Czech Republic), dpa (Germany), EFE, and Europa Press (both Spain). The agency journalists were accompanied by Tim Kohnen and Christian Röwekamp from the enr, who asked questions on behalf of other agencies that were not physically present during the interview.

Following the interview, the materials were distributed to all enr agencies, allowing them to publish news pieces on their respective channels. Once again, this is a very good example of collegiality and the exchange of information, a consistent goal of the European Newsroom.

The enr also produced two Key Stories based on the interview:

Story 1: EU Rule of Law Commissioner McGrath hits back at Orbán’s Budapest Pride accusations

Story 2: EU Commissioner McGrath: Chinese trading platforms need to play by EU rules

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