Welcome back to the animal physiology course in NPTEL. So, today we will be starting a new section which is digestion. So, before I really give an overview of the digestion, let us talk little bit about how this whole thing works. So, body needs energy and for energy it has to process the food what we eat. So, in order to process the food there is a complex channel through with the food is the food moves through. It is just like a processing plant where you take the raw food raw or cooked whatsoever you take the net food and this food is broken down into small particles that is basically in other order what you are doing the way you process minerals you take it bring down the size of it. So, that the reaction takes place better after that this passes through different stages and different channels where different component of the food. So, food basically consists of four components if you look at food carbohydrate which is the major source of energy which includes your glucose, galactose, mannose, lactose this we all have discussed in the first section. Then the food contains the lipids which you have talked about the major constituent of the memory in the lipids fatty acids, color stroll and all other things. Then food contains a huge chunk of proteins the building block which includes which consists of the 21 different amino acids the permutation of combination of amino acids and apart from it food contains a lot of minerals which are essential as you could see the whole communication in the body is because of mineral sodium chloride and ionic state potassium magnesium calcium and apart from it there are few other small components which includes your vitamins at some hormones which are derived from outside the system vitamin like molecules and all those. So, overall if you have to classify you have the food could be classified as carbohydrate lipids or fats proteins minerals vitamins and few other accessory compounds similar to hormones of those kind of growth booster or thing. So, all these different components have to be absorbed in a different fashion they cannot be absorbed and they have to be regulated in a different fashion. So, this whole process by which the food initially what we intake so in the mouth basically using our teeth we grind it. So, this is the first thing is to grind the food in other word you are increasing its surface to volume ratio because as you are going down with the particle size you will increase it. So, basically what is happening what is over chemical within the body is going to act upon it to break it down further will get more surface area what we basically doing nanotechnology where you where you reduce the size of surface to volume ratio of a particle. Then a part of it then there are whole range of secretion of different hormones and different chemicals all along the pathway and at times this food is exposed to these particles are exposed to very acidic condition. Then they are exposed to basic conditions and there are action of different kind of molecules which dissolves the lipids for that you need lipid dissolving solutions. Then you need the absorption protein and then you need special absorption of other minerals and this whole thing takes place along the G I tract or gastrointestinal tract. So, all of you must have seen some picture of gastrointestinal tract here and there or insul bit batism or in a doctor's clinic or at least at one time in all these years you must have seen one picture.  So, what I will try to do in this class I will give you a overall topology that how in a very simple in a block diagram which will clarify all your confusion and I am not going to exactly draw the way anatomies. I will just follow that I will break up the anatomical features into block diagram that will help you to appreciate how this whole structure looks like. Then what I will do the first thing is that I will give you the complete topological idea. The second thing what I will do is that because if you remember while we were talking about the nervous system I told you most of the digestive system is under the control of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic system. So, what I will do I will draw the connectivity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system where all these are connected and that will help you to appreciate that how this different opposing nervous signal help the food to travel all along the GI tract from the mouth all the way down and the processed and the rest of the food which cannot be used is defecated out from our body as a fecal matter. So, that is the next aspect of the anatomy which I am going to share and the third thing what we will do we will talk I will draw the cross section of the GI tract to give you an idea how this whole tract is designed by nature over millions of years of evolution which helps it to absorb with extreme efficiency all the different things and on how that structure is being harmed when we take like you know we take excessive liquor or some other kind of agents which are not really very healthy for our body at a certain higher concentration. So, with this what I will do I will just summarize what I have just now told you and then we will move on to the block diagram of the digestive system. So, this is our digestive system that is what we are dealing with this is our lecture one. So, going back to next slide. So, we talked about the components of foods which includes your carbohydrate fats and lipids proteins and peptides and you have minerals then you have vitamins these are the components. Now, what I will do we will talk about the whole geometry of the or the topology of the digestive system. Let us start drawing it. So, I am drawing it horizontally instead of drawing it vertically because that way I will get more space to draw the whole thing. So, I will just put the label as soon as I am done with the drawing. So, this is the teeth. So, where the food intake is taking place. So, food is entering here and this is the zone where the food is broken down into small pieces. Now, you reach canal which is called esophagus come to that it looks like and there is a small and then we enter into stomach like this and this is stomach is exceptionally acidic come to that and this is the part where food experiences extreme acidic environment and it is because of this environment what is over drug which has to be administered in our body through the digestive system have to be insured that this could withstand that extreme acidic environment. Now, start labeling all of them one by one. So, the first one is the teeth where basically the food is getting this is the bulk amount of food of the smaller component breaking down into pieces step one this is the function of the teeth. Now, comes the second which is called the salivary gland. So, all of you are well versed with this one definitely because salivary gland is in your mouth and if you see some really good food you start salivating you know you start feeling with you know if I could get that food. So, this is completely driven by your brain when the saliva started to come or you are about to eat and you get a saliva. So, it is that salivary gland which regulates it and it is regulated by the higher centers of the brain through a series of sympathetic and parasympathetic module. Now, from here comes this canal which is your this whole part and mind it one thing I have done these are all double walled structure and will come in depth on this thing. So, this is your esophagus some people write it with O some light with E esophagus from esophagus the food enters into a completely acidic environment of stomach which has a p h in a around one. This is the next stage next stoppage for the food here the food gets kind of you know through and now it is reaching stomach. Now, here there are two organs which comes into play the biggest organ of the body which is here which is the liver. So, this is your liver inside that you see this structure this is the one which is present almost embedded into the structure this is gallbladder there was a reason because many a times whenever you see the picture of the digestive system anatomically it is being drawn it becomes really challenging for those who have not seen the physical digestive system another like the who have not done the dissection at times become really difficult for them to understand exactly what is connected to what that was the whole reason why I decided that I will give you a flow chart diagram. So, that will clarify all your like you know exactly what is the anatomical location. So, now from now on whenever you will look into a real anatomical image you will be able to figure out the connectivity between the different organs which constitute this whole G I tract coming back to this. So, this is the gallbladder and this is where there is another organ you could see out on the other side I have not drawn the organ full it looks more like this is your pancreas you might hear people suffer for pancreatitis and all those things. So, this is where lies your pancreas and we will be talking a lot about this because this is a seat of hormone secretion in the body here food enters into the small intestine the huge area where there is lot of absorption taking place and which is very well inner very nicely supplied with the blood vessels. So, that they can absorb as much food particle or the inner different component of the food particle as possible. So, this is very well vascularized structure in the body. So, then comes the small intestine and then comes the structure where you can see which is called cologne or large intestine. So, out here basically the major job of this is to absorbs a lot of the residual matter large intestine. So, this is the G I tract intestine and in terms of anatomical perspective if I draw it if I look it. So, if you are using this picture horizontally if I draw it anatomically then this is how it will look like if this is the head and this is the rest of the body it is something like this. This is how it will look like this is where you are taking your food. So, this is the same structure which I just if I go back slide in the previous slide. So, this is what is happening. So, food is entering from the mouth. So, this is the mouth then there is a series of secretion which are taking place here from the salivary gland after that the food moves through the isophagus then it moves into the stomach in the stomach it is exposed to a lot of it is a total acidic environment. So, the reason what I was trying to highlight is that say for example. So, this is something to a very application oriented situation say for example, you have to take a drug through the oral route. So, the first thing what happens is that once you take the drug this drug experiences are extreme acidic environment in the stomach. So, if this drug has to be absorbed somewhere because as I told you it is in the small intestine where the maximum absorption is taking place because it is a very well vascularized supplied with lot of blood vessels it is if that has to happen and one has to ensure that that drug in the intestine sorry in the stomach survives the heavy acidic environment. And this is a big challenge whenever you have to take a drug directly through the oral route because the drug goes through a whole range of modification pH changing environment has to be stable it has to be stable at different pH. So, that it is finally being absorbed in the right place which is the small intestine that is why I just put that acidic environment. From this acidic environment of the stomach it moves to the large intestine which I told you is the zone where there is a lot of absorption taking place which I am showing by the arrow enormous amount of absorption is taking place absorption of by the blood vessels. So, after this what is over so it is that it is in this particular zone where you have secretions from the liver gallbladder and pancreas. So, all the secretions which are there are taking place at this zone and all the different absorption are taking place it is here where glucose is being regulated it is here where the islet cells of Langerhans are regulating your glucose level and all other things it is here where any defect in this zone leads to a person being diabetic or some kind of you know liver problem or something it is at this critical zone of the pathway which is essentially this is the zone where major problem arises it can be in the form of liver cancer it could be in the form of pancreatitis it could be a form of some kind of problem in the gallbladder blast where the gallbladder burst out. So, these are the this is a very critical zone of the anatomy where lot of absorption takes place and lot of very critical functions are being regulated here. So, most of the gastrointestinal pathologies in terms of liver or bilory problems liver problem pancreatic problem they all are concentrated in this very critical part of the anatomical structure a chunk of it as a matter of fact if you if you look at some of the institutes of NIH or even an in India we have a specific institutes for this national institute or for you know liver likewise I mean this is so very important it is a very interesting zone especially we are passing for very interesting time when people are trying to you know the tissue engineering liver they are trying to if there is a problem in the liver they could you know replace a part of it or they are trying to tissue engineer pancreas some part of it if they could put it back. So, these are some of the very critical zones where there is enormous amount of studies going on across the world where people are trying to ensure that you know how we could you know reduce the pain and the problems of the people who suffer from liver disorders you hear these things very commonly fatty livers or liver cancer or liver damage or you know because of excessive taking excessive wine or some form of liquor there is a liver has a problem or same way in the pancreas you hear this pancreatitis many celebrities die of this particular problem. So, this is a very very critical zone of the whole GI tract and then after that whatsoever absorption taking place in the small intestine then rest of the food which is not absorbed now moves to the large intestine large intestine is another zone it is fairly huge zone and it is not that this whole zone is very very functional. So, the major idea of the large intestine is to absorb the residual minerals and all other things which could which has not been absorbed in the small intestine. So, this is the last frontier and after that through the anus. So, here you have the anus you defecate whenever the concentration of the material to be thrown out of the body goes beyond a concentration you feel you have to you know defecate out you throw away the food. So, this is an open channel. So, if you look at it from the mount through the anus this is an open channel which is running through the body along the cross section of the body. So, if I had to give you another analogy of it is something like this. So, if this is a cartoon of a human being look at it like this. So, basically what is happening. So, here is a channel which is moving like this if this is the mouth and this is the anus.  This is getting the important material of the food is getting absorbed all along this track after processing of course, it is getting process inside and. So, this is the food material. So, it is getting absorbed and rest of it is being defecated out. So, this is a both side open ended channel it opens one at the mouth one at the anus and along that track all this phenomenal events are taking place and this is what I wish you people to appreciate that it is. So, it looks so simple, but it is it is really a marvel of nature how the food enters and goes through all these different structures and in those the structure it goes through a different process and different components of the food carbohydrate your fat proteins vitamins minerals water in water water needs a specific absorption process. There are specific water channels which helps the water to be absorbed slowly. So, how this all these wonderful things are happening along that channel this is exceptionally important for people to appreciate and understand with this what I will do I will highlight one very interesting thing which is called peristaltic movement. So, basically the word is this peristaltic or it is also called peristalsis peristaltic movement what really is peristaltic movement. So, excuse me so whenever we take food. So, what happens how the food really moves through this channel I draw the channel for you now the food moves in the form of a bolus. So, when you take a food it is just like we chew the food like this once we chew the food it forms a bolus or a ball like structure that ball moves imagine you have a flexible tube like this and you drop a ball how the ball will move. So, the ball moves like this if you if you look at it. So, if this is a flexible tube you have likewise and here I have a ball something like let me redraw this this is so that and I have a ball like this now this ball has to get through and this is a very flexible this is fairly flexible. So, what will happen when the ball will be here stage one when the ball will be here this all this wall will get inflated like this to accommodate this then once this ball will move here then this part will get inflated then as the ball moves here then this part will get inflated to accommodate that big ball and eventually once it comes out and this is a flexible membrane. So, this whole motion of the ball this whole motion of the ball as it is moving through the digestive tract like that is called peristalsis and this whole motion is called peristaltic movement. So, this is how the food moves through this narrow tube in the form of a bolus it goes through like this and this whole peristalsis is governed not only by the nature of this muscle the smooth muscle along with it there are nerve signals which regulates this process and this is very very important. This is one of the areas of research which is currently a lot of attention has been put that how the nerve signals are regulating this motion of food like this something like this if you follow my hand likewise it is moving like this and this is very very important this whole motion of the food along the pathway.  So, every point of it people have to understand that you know there are lot of connectivity issues here who is connected to what and how these these connections are taking place. So, what I will do now I will add on that the component of parasympathetic and sympathetic where they are regulating the whole process. So, let me see if I could do it in this diagram bit tricky. So, I will redraw it that is easier. So, I will again redraw the whole structure so that on a fresh a you can.   Now, I will introduce in the red and the blue the sympathetic and parasympathetic connectivity. So, it works like this so this is the parasympathetic I am drawing this is the parasympathetic route moving through when you have this parasympathetic connectivity of this whole structure out here then you have parasympathetic connectivity of the whole large intestine. So, this is your parasympathetic connection. So, if you look at the parasympathetic connection carefully you will see the salivary gland stomach your small intestine and large intestine is under the parasympathetic control. So, this is parasympathetic control now where is the sympathetic control which I told you I will show in green. So, the sympathetic control exactly moves in the same way here is the sympathetic control moving through on the stomach then you have the sympathetic control exactly at the same point where you have the parasympathetic control and here you have the ok. So, this is basically the parasympathetic control. So, I told you that there is the way the food moves I will show it in your green the way the food moves is something like this along this path and this is what is what we call as peristalsis. So, this whole peristalsis process along with this along with this along with this here also the same thing happens it moves like this. This peristalsis process along with the motion of the bolus along the muscle like you know changing the elasticity of the muscle as it moves through is also governed by this sympathetic and parasympathetic. So, if I say this one gets a positive signal here. So, for example, it is a positive signal it gets simultaneously a negative signal from here or vice versa which is over we want to call it if it gets a positive here it will get a negative here same way if it gets a negative signal here then it will get a positive. So, there are always reverse signal which helps.  So, this whole tube is being regulated by this on off switches on off on off on off on off and this is whole completely inner weighted with this sympathetic and parasympathetic neurons and apart from it it is very very well vascularized best because if you go back to the previous slide if you look at this. So, this is under the complete. So, if I draw the vascular like this in with the pink color. So, it is completely vascularized is a huge amount of blood vessel vascularizing it because it is here the body has to you know absorb all it nutrients. If you look at the cross section of it since I have drawn this what I will do I will draw the after the sympathetic and parasympathetic control thing I will draw the cross section. So, the cross section is very interesting. So, it has multiple layers. So, basically what I am trying to show you is this. So, what I am essentially is drawing is the cross section of this. So, if you cut it like this. So, if I have the tube like this and I cut it like this. So, this is the tube say for example, this is the top part of the tube from where the food is traveling down all the and this is the anus. So, I am cutting the tube in a cross section like this and this is what I am going to show you the cross section. So, the cross section shows this is how the cross section looks like there are multiple layers and this is the outermost layer what I am drawing now the double layer looks like. Then inside this layer you have the next layer which is something like this just for your understanding sake I am doing it like that because if you see an anatomy book it is far more complex than way I am just trying to draw a block diagram. So, that you people understand it in a simple way that how that looks like and I appreciate the beauty of this channel which is pretty much our life line. So, this next layer so, the space between this and this is called Seroza S-E-R-O-S-A Seroza and this is called this you see this this layer this is called Longichirinal smooth muscle. There are two different kind of smooth muscle and I have already talked to you about the muscle physiology and between the Longichirinal smooth muscle you see these structures these important structure these are called Gat junctions. This is how the electrical impulse from one muscle is being shifted to the or transferred to the next muscle.  So, this layer what I have drawn now is called circular smooth muscle layer circular smooth muscle layer. Then within the circular smooth muscle layer you have another layer which is this layer which is called mucosal layer. This is of course, a double I am once again let me just change that. So, this is a double double layer structure all of them are pretty much double layer structures thick double layer structure and this is called your mucosal layer and the central cavity which you see out here is called lumen. So, we talked about and in between there is a layer in between these two this is called sub mucosal layer sub mucosal. So, if you look at it so you have the outermost covering then you have the surrosal layer which is here. Then you have then you have longitudinal smooth muscle layer which is the next layer it has gap junctions in it. Then you have the next layer which is the circular smooth muscle layer and then you have the mucosal layer and of course, in the center which is the lumen through which the bolus passes. So, this is the kind of cross sectional view of the g i tract what we have just now discussed along these lines. So, these are the cross sectional view with little bit of here and there some of them will have you know kind of you know brush border like this for enhancing the absorption and all those things these are further modification, but overall geometry of the g i tract is like this. So, let us summarize what we have covered just now. So, we talked about the components of the food including carbohydrate, fats and lipids, proteins, minerals and vitamins. Then we talked about the overall topology this is the topology of the g i tract gastrointestinal.  Then we talked about give you a feel how the vasculature is functioning these are the vasculature for the blood vessel which are all along and it is open in the tube. So, this is open here and it opens at the end at the anus and the phagin at the anus. So, it is open tube through with the food passes and it is getting absorbed. Then we talked about the peristaltic moment how the food is moving through and we talked about the parasympathetic and the sympathetic control and then we talked about the cross sectional view of the g i tract itself. With this overview I will move also I will close in this lecture and I will move on to the next lecture we will be talking little bit more about the real process where every where which aspect or which part of the food is getting absorbed in which part of the body. Thank you.


Are the regular mics on? I would like to only use the pedal power tonight, if possible, please. Thank you. Alright, I think that sounds like it's only coming from one source, which is this bike. So normally when you ride a bike around town, both wheels are on the ground. You've got the front wheel for steering, and then you've got the rear wheel for going. And this is a regular bike. Actually, Mia dropped me off from her neighborhood today. I rode here from East Van, but this bike also has a special purpose. So when we elevate the rear wheel in the air, we are able to tap the power that normally goes into transportation. And that actually happens right in the middle of the rear wheel.  Normally there are little small hubs on a bicycle. This one's big and fat because it's loaded up with magnets and coils. And when Mia pedals, when she's pedaling, she's forcing the magnets to move past the coils, which creates an electric field. That's like a high pressure area of electrons, and they have to go somewhere. And in this case they go into our pedal power utility box, which has within it some circuitry and a small storage tank for energy called an ultra-capacitor. And then the ultra-capacitor feeds the amplifier, and I'm able to use the power of amplification and speak to you. And when we do music events, we use the power of amplification and get our music out, the lyrics hurt, get the bass felt. And what's happening right now, Mia's putting in only about 40 to 50 watts of effort, which is the same amount of effort that you put in when you're riding a bike around town. Of course, it's more when you're climbing a hill and less when you're just descending. So she's doing about 40 to 50 watts of effort. And this technology scales very well. In fact, this weekend in Eugene, Oregon, we're going to be part of the Bicycle Music Festival of Eugene, and there's going to be 12 peddlers, not just one. And so when we have 12 peddlers, we can produce a true festival stage with subwoofers and a line array hanging and proper stage monitor so that the bands can hear themselves sing. So we're using the power of amplification. Amplification has changed the game of music. Really, starting around the 50s, amplification gave us the Beatles. Later gave us hip hop, and we're never going to go back to a time before amplification, but with pedal power, we're able to introduce this interesting new constraint, which is that you can only use as much amplification as is provided by the people peddling. And when the rock thing happened, it started changing the experience of music. It started changing what music was all about. And people started saying things like, oh, I went to an awesome concert. I got rocked.  But getting rocked is passive. It's passive voice. And what we're saying with our pedal-powered music events is we don't want you to get rocked. We want you to get up early in the morning, have coffee with us, load some bikes with us. Let's strap the speakers down to these bikes so that they don't move around when we're going through the city. Now we're on the bikes. Now we're cruising through the town as a pack with the beat on because we have batteries to help us listen along the way to keep our spirits up so that we arrive with a good attitude and good energy. Now we're at our festival venue. Maybe it's a park. Maybe it's a fairgrounds or an auditorium. We're taking the speakers off the bike. We're putting them up on stands. Now it's time to test the system. Now it's time to get some good, clean pedal-power flowing. We need 10 people on the bikes. Let's raise and lower the seats as needed so that we can get some power flowing. And maybe it's less about getting rocked, but it's more about we did it ourselves. And at the end of an experience like that, the effect of the music has been much stronger. Music is a gift to bring us together. The beat helps us work together. And at a pedal-powered show, all of that is much stronger. People have had their hearts opened literally by pedaling, by getting their heart going, and they're already moving. And so it helps get the dancing started. And what motivates me about this work is that pedal-power provides an example of teamwork that helps us have faith that our individual efforts can collectively matter, because one person alone cannot power a concert, but 10 people working together, 15 can. And we need to have that right now. We have some problems ahead that we're facing that are related to bicycling and transportation, things like global warming, for which we are going to have to work together. And we need to believe that we can do that, that when we do our individual action, i.e. pedaling, that it actually can have a collective event, a collective benefit that really matters. We like to ride long distances, carry heavy loads, remember to work that upper body so you don't look like a toad. Do some funky things to get your attention. That only serves to boost our knowledge and retention of the essential facts of our expertise that you can match us. Please rock the bike, rock the bike rider, starting with the cam straps. We like to coil them up when we're not using them, so we don't oil them up in the chains of our cargo bikes. And then we roll the long things, bundle hard and tight. I start to ride another rhyme. My thoughts are numerous. The face from the bike is boomerous. Extend my humorous. Cruel no letter rumor is true. We gots to do a gig on paid. Ride across town, sit up the pedal power stage, cause this is the hour and the age. Rock the bike rider. Where you riding to? Would you ride with your own and with you on your crew? Did you pack rockers or did you rate two? Cause one day the power might just cut on you to rock the bike rider. Where you riding to? Would you ride with your own and with you on your crew? Did you pack rockers or did you rate two? Some food from the fridge, some water in a metal bottle. Rock the bike rider. Rock the bike rider. Rock the bike rider. Rock the bike rider. Rock the bike rider. Rock the bike rider. Rock the bike rider.


Felly, mae'n meddwl yn gweithio, ac mae'n amser o'r ddaeth y thamag ysgol, felly rydyn ni'n edrych o'r ffordd o'r ysgolwch yng ngyfledig a oedol, o'r llwyddiad ysgolwch. Rydyn ni'n meddwl o'r 30 oes ar gyfer yr yrwyth i'r arnod yn cyfwyrdiad o'r yrwyth i'r 30 oes ar gyfer yr yrwyth i'r yrwth. Felly, mae'n cymaint ar y ddweudio ond mae'n cymhwyllfa, ar y teriywyr sydd yn gyfyrdiad meddwl yw'r cyfrifol, ieddaf yn ymddi'r llwyr a'r taethau, ac amgylchedd yma i ddim yn yma ymddi'r rhai yn y maen, aeth yn ymddi'r sefydliad. Felly, yma yw'n rhoi'n mynd i'w gweithio'n rhai yn ymddi'r 14 mennydau a'r ysgolwyd yn ymddi'r ychydig yn ysgrifennu. Rydych chi'n mynd i ddweud y dyfodol yn y Baltic Eisteddfodol, mae'n rhaid i'ch gweithio'r hwnnw i'ch gweithio'r hwnnw. Y dyfodol traddwl yn hynny'r historiograffiaeth mae'r ysgrifennu bwysigol yn y Baltic Eisteddfodol yn y bwysigol yma. Felly, mae'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'n mynd i'ch Maen nhyw felly yn defnyddiad ar allan 50 rhan, sy'n geithradd trwy ddames ar gael blaen, yn ymddangos ffordd gwirionedd dyma. A yma, os yma y maes yr ysgol gwirionedd, felly mae'n gwirionedd yn ysgrifwm i'r gyffredig sy'n gyffredig. Mae'n gwirionedd mae'n rhaid wneud yn ddechrau o sixu wedi yma a ysgolwyddon o'r llyfr yn y tydd, sy'n meddwl yn y cyntaf. Yn y gyfnod y cyfnod, mae'n mynd i gael'r pwyllt o'r cyfrifol o'r cyfrifol o'r cyfrifol sy'n mynd i gael i'r cyfrifol o'r cyfrifol, ac mae'n mynd i'n ffordd o'r cyfrifol o'r cyfrifol. Felly, mae'n ffordd o'r cyfrifol i'ch cyfrifol sydd wedi'i'r cyfrifol, a'r lyfr o'r hynny yn y mlyneddol yma, gallwn i'r cyfrifol ar gyfer. gallwch ei wneud hynny o'r dyfloedd y ffordd yma neu gallai dod o'r ffordd am gyfod ar gyfer y dyn nhw. Ystyn bach yn y Cymru tua, ac yna'r ystyn yn y bydd y model o'r gweithr siaradau a'r gweithrdd sferdoeddol yma. A hynny'n gyhoedd yr ysgol wedi'i bwrch, maen i'r model sy'n cyfwrod yma, oherwydd o'r llogleau'r newydd ac eich holl hwnnw, oherwydd yma, i'r ddweud o'r maes ar gyfer hyn. Mae'r cyfnod oedd yn dweud yn bwysig, ond yw'r cyffredin iawn mae'r cyffredin iawn yn Estonia, a'r cyffredin iawn yn ymwysig o'r cyffredin iawn, a'r cyffredin iawn yn bwysig. Yn ymwysig o'r bwysig o'r prif erbyn, mae'n gweithio'r cyffredin iawn, sylwgr o'r gyflym lleoli cwedigol gyda cymhwyr hilydd ymんigoedd neu ddwyg Fyrdd yn Lywodraeth Cymru, a un o'r cyfnod yma yn Fartsewach gyda'r cyffredin iawn cyfrannu lleol o'r cyfrannu lleoli deolhau gwyrddran i'r cyfrannu ar moneg unlikelyll arlyniau cyfuenceu argrannu chefwyr arbennig. Felly, yma, y cyfrannu llfaenysydd iawn i'r cyfrannu llyffr ymdyn nhw himn yn mynd ychydigas Cyn iddo yn ymdill, oedd yma'r awdurd yn y 11a. Maen nhw'n credu ar y cyflogol hefyd ar y Tartu, ac yn ymdill y meddwl yma. Ymdill yma, mae'r awdurd yn y same y haith, a'i yw'r arnyf yn y stêl ar y 5a. Yma'r awdurd yn y casgliadau yma, ddyn ni'n ddiddordeb ar y sgol yma. Mae'r awdurd wedi'i ddwylo ar gyfer y Fawr Rhwy, iawn o'r trafod nifer eich frayr ar gyfer y gyflawn o gweithio ar y maen nhw i'ch gweithio'r gweithio'r liedd ar y maen nhw i'ch gweithio'r lyth wedi'u gwneud. A o'r hunain yr unrhyw gwaith, rydyn ni wedi'n dechrau i ddweud i gwybod yma, yn yr hyn yn amlwg yma sy'n ymgyrch yn ddweud yn y ddweud y maen nhw i'ch gweithio'r llai. The general picture, which I already referred to, was that the gradual development of the pre-urban centres took a quick turn after the conquest, which meant that the new urban development was definitely top down, led by German not only merchants, but also newly founded states and was rather quick. Here's the timeline for my historical sources to talk to from the licence given to a bishop to build a town up to saying that a war town had been founded in the next 30 years, and the traditional understanding of this written information has been that it had already been a war town. What I've been doing during the last few years is trying to map the archaeological finds from the town area. Here the red dots on my map are the main excavated areas which have yielded any information about 13th century Tartu, and the picture emerging is something which rather looks like that the 13th century settlement has been rather disproportionate. Here are some of the most easily characteristic types of pottery which could be distinguished among most of the archaeological collections that we have, and what is important here is that here are some of the vessel types which allow choices to be understood. For example, those here marked with black dots on the map are those of local making, while those with a green dot are the Paphrat war of German origin, both used as cooking war during the 13th century. Another example to be given here are those marked with yellow dots at the face jugs of North Scandinavian origin also concentrating around the later market place situated on the southern side of the town. To make a quick conclusion out of the distribution of ceramic finds in the town area, we could see that there is a great concentration next to the area where the market place has later been located. This idea, however, is also later justified with analysis of certainly 13th century house types, those timber framed houses which also tend to concentrate differently in this area. However, of this interest is the area just south of the town wall, a larger area which also has most of the item types of that period present. So, to move on to a question about the town wall of Tartu. With medieval walled towns, as usual, we should first pay your attention to the situation where Tartu is. It is a region where natural stone is a short supply, which means that most of the medieval buildings are brick made, which also means that there's not a great chance to start town building from the town wall. A classical research done during last years and published already several years ago has shown that on two locations where the town wall could be dated strategically, it had emerged no earlier than the very end of the 13th century, which means that the stone wall most likely was not built before but at least not in the southeastern corner and on the river side of the town. There have been suggestions that Woodham Palace said was present before that but so far have been no indication of that kind of construction, so we do not have any information what actually the townscape looked like before that. Of course, this suggestion has moved on to the interpretation of the town shape in general, which means that the location of marketplace plus the missing of a southern town wall has given forth to the idea that the town area has extended further south and being replanned during the 14th century. Another question which has been asked during that and which to my mind can be connected with interpretation of top down and bottom up ideas in the town formation of Tartu is the location of churches. As the 13th century town in Tartu was definitely the forming centre of a Bishokric, it certainly should have been planned as a cathedral site and the forming urban community, the definitely needed church. So far there is only one indication when we have a definitely 13th century church made of wood which presates the later probably best known and John's church of Tartu known for its terracotta sculptures but not built before the 13th thirties. The cathedral, one of the largest brick structures in the eastern Baltic, may have been formed in the second half of the 13th century but no traces of any brick structure before the 1260s. There has probably been an offer of church in the very north corner of that dedicated to the St George and may have also been built in the 13th century. Of course looking at the town plan there is one dot which is missing that is centrally located at St Mary's where we might in all likelihood think of a connection or marketplace, a town centre and a search but so far no positive information of any earlier churches. Another issue is a question of bridges in the town area. Here's the town plan with two medieval dated brick sites and here you can see how it looks on the geographical model. The northern one has been located with a river crossing site since the prehistoric times and this probably was the reason why this site was at all chosen first for a hill port located here on that site and later for the medieval town. For the southern one there is written documentation from the 16th century and it was later connected with the bastion building of the 17th century, quite well readable from this geographic situation. So the location of the town, the two bridges and of course the quite small size of the town leads to a question whether the two were really simultaneous or was there any other reason for that and recently there has been actually a suggestion that the not have always been in simultaneous use so it actually may have been that this and then the other and then again the third one so actually the question of a town plan analysis here does not help we do need any remains. So what was I was trying to discuss here is the role of model based suggestions in the discussion of town formation in tattoo. Does it enhance all of your points on the research questions which I have been addressing or are we are restricted by the models that we know that should have been there. We should look for a early church. We should have a town wall and we should have a 13th century cultural layer. Of course there's a question how to proportionally find a solution balancing those top down processes which are needed for any urban development with obtained archaeological data and my suggestion so far has been trying to collect whatever there is so that we have to accommodate this and that to come up with most reasonable solution to the existing facts. So so far research has mostly focused on the spatial development of a town area where there's probably been most archaeological information used. There has been model based suggestions which have been used to form new research questions and there have been data based considerations such as the short lifespan of prehistoric settlement based on the long formation project of 13th century town which do not very well fit into the material remains but anyhow. And finally there have been several episodes that led to a way that the town of tattoo has taken in present space. So basically speaking it has taken something with it from the long history. So thank you for that.


It's a debate on the fight against disinformation to ensure a functioning and resilient democracy at all levels. We have the pleasure and the honor to have with us the president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Liedert Wirbeck, which I greet and thank him for being with us today. And allow me at the outset to welcome the president to a debate which is timely for two main reasons. First, we continue to already establish a fruitful exchange with our partners. This way we can ensure complementarity of activities and pursue common objectives to support and promote democracy at all levels of governance and further strengthen our cooperation on issues of mutual importance, also beyond the borders of the EU. And secondly, we are addressing today how to ensure a functioning and resilient democracy at all levels, an issue which lies at the very core of both our institutions. This is crucial in view of one of the biggest threats of our modern times to democratic societies, disinformation. We are looking into this from the perspective of local and regional authorities, which are well placed to play an active role in countering these threats. And we have a very timely example of this disinformation. It's about the vaccine problems, the vaccine process, pardon me, and the vaccination, where disinformation is also growing all over the world. And in elaborating effective measures to counter disinformation, we need to pay particular attention to strengthening media literacy and civic education. Local and regional authorities can play an important education role, creating the conditions for local communities to develop sound democratic habits. This issue also counts among the priorities of the Committee of the Regents in the deliberations of the Conference on the Future of Europe. We will continue to advocate for a stronger role of our local and regional authorities in empowering citizens against disinformation and ensuring democratic resilience in the broadest sense. We are looking forward to a continued cooperation with the Congress towards this goal. Dear Mr. Verbic, I now give you the floor. Welcome to the Committee of the Regents. I now give you the floor for eight minutes. Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. I'll do my best, but I don't know if I'll stick to the eight minutes, but it will be close. Dear Vice President Cordero, dear members of the European Committee of the Regents, and I'm also happy to see so many familiar members of our Congress and ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure for me to contribute to the important debate on the future of European democracy. On behalf of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of our Council of Europe. This in the spirit of the longstanding partnership between our two institutions. It's crucial for both of our institutions to join their efforts today when our democratic model and the functioning of democracy is facing multiple challenges. This debate is taking place amid the ongoing pandemic when new restrictive measures for democracy and human rights are being introduced across the continent. This health crisis has put to a rigorous test of our institutions of governance and their ability to respond to the challenge and protect our citizens. The situation remains tense and precarious within the nations. The national executive authorities in many countries are still retaining the considerable powers which were re-centralized from the regional and local level in a reflex as part of the crisis management. At the same time, the post-crisis recovery is another important aspect. The Committee of the Regions was right to ring the alarm bell early on the lack of consultations with local and regional authorities and their insufficient presence in the post-COVID recovery plans. The Congress presented a series of specific recommendations in this respect to the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in Athens in November 2020. They remain fully valid and included better use of the multi-level governance system, constant dialogue with sub-national authorities and their greater involvement in central decision-making and better access to direct funding. It is encouraging that the foreign ministers of the 47 Council of Europe Member States recognize the need for improved multi-level governance in Europe. This in response to the health crisis complemented by better multilateral cooperation as the pandemic is not impressed by national borders. Dear colleagues, the COVID-19 pandemic represents certainly the clear and present danger to our democracy, to use the military jargon, but it's by far not the only one. Before the pandemic broke out, the Congress already raised alarm in 2019 about multiple crisis faced by our societies and the loss of citizens' confidence in the ability of our system of governance to provide an adequate response. In its contribution to the Committee of Ministers in Helsinki in May 2019, the Congress expressed concern about the deteriorating link between public institutions and citizens. This done in a worrying context of an increase in anti-liberal tendencies returned to authoritarian temptations and a resurgence of nationalism. This is happening against the background of tangible effects of climate change, the struggle to cope with the increasing pace of technological change and the challenges of migration. The globalization of our economies and its impact on our traditional cultural references. We argue that these transformations lead to social anxiety and an evolution in our political perceptions. Reflected more specifically in a crisis of representation that manifests itself in many European countries. Also in the emerge of a clash society in which confrontation is the norm, which new forms of individual and collective violence. And we also see a trend towards a habit of strongly voicing indignation and a loss of discourse and discussion based on reflection and arguments. In addition, a growing proportion of citizens do not feel that they are properly represented nor secure and voice their dissatisfaction with the elected politicians. Many of these phenomena have been observed during Congress monitoring and electoral observation missions. We argued that restoring the link between institutions of governance and citizens passes through the regaining citizens trust and the crucial role of democracy of proximity in this regard. Using the net capital of higher levels of citizens confidence in local and regional elected representatives and territorial authorities overall. As we address today in this debate, the question of this information and its impact on the functioning of democracy, it is important to see this larger picture of current situation and the current challenges. It is important because the trust in fake news begins with the mistrust in public authorities and the information they provide. Rebuilding citizens confidence in the political system is therefore the only sustainable way to reverse the spread of this information. And I'm grateful to President Macron who yesterday addressed the threats of cyber attacks and fake news in electoral campaigns and processes. The first line of defense against the threats of pluralistic democracy is the local level. Our municipalities, our towns and cities for they are the clue of societies. Dear colleagues, this brings me directly to the subject matter of today's debate. It goes without saying that in the context of multiple crisis our societies are facing. The importance of reliable information received by citizens cannot be overestimated. In a democracy, citizens must have access to reliable information that they can use to participate in government, civic and corporate decision-making. Information is the key to making the right decisions at all levels of governance and is therefore a crucial factor for the good functioning of democracy and its resilience to challenges. Yet the information landscape has been changing fast with the widespread use of and reliance on the internet and its online content, social media and use of blogs. The volume, the content, the platforms, each of these has evolved beyond recognition in a short period of time. 25 years ago, most of our information came from printed publication, television and radio. Today, these are complemented, rivaled and often eclipsed by websites, blogs and social media. The monopoly of professional press has been democratized. Well-known outlets are joined by an abundance of new sources including millions of individuals that spread news with the click of a share button. This new environment represents a challenge to the traditional media. The values, the original journalism independence, the protection of sources, verification of information, investigative reporting, they have been under pressure from the need to compete with the immediacy of online content, this at the risk of the decline of fact-checking and quality journalism all over. The fast development of algorithms and artificial intelligence adds to the complexity of the issue. The fight against this information has confronted us with the question, what is acceptable when it comes to regulating freedom of speech? An open and regular dialogue between the tech companies, the governments, international institutions and civil society is instrumental in balancing rights and harm in the content moderation process. Policies have been designed by civil society and governments around the world to stop the spread of false information while safeguarding the right to freedom of expression and access to information. If technology spreads this information, this should be tamed. The new media and the tech giants should be held to account based on the need for transparency, responsibility and neutrality. However, is it feasible to mandate them with upholding specific standards of information? And who would decide on those standards? The fight against this information involves a range of actors, citizens, governments, private sector, media and social media, as well as international platforms. Media literacy is crucial in this fight. A new social culture surrounding internet must be created in order to promote social responsibility, establish clear rules on what is appropriate online behavior and raise awareness about the risks. Governments need to put a place in place new structures to support quality media, especially the public service broadcasters, which are vitally important to a healthy media landscape and have been able to maintain relatively high levels of trust. At the same time, the traditional media, they need to reach beyond their usual scope in order to connect with broader sections of society. Local media, which has come under immense financial pressure in recent years, must also be actively supported financially by central and local authorities and institutions. One of the general solutions is to raise awareness among the broader population of the role that the traditional media play. In this regard, local and regional authorities play a major role on all fronts in responding to this complex issue using their proximity to citizens. They can do so by engaging citizens and civil society in public debates and democratic participation, supporting grassroots initiatives and local media, raising public awareness, as well as improving media literacy and access to reliable information overall. Local and regional authorities have a direct stake in this matter. A debate held in our Congress last October showed that local and regional elected representatives throughout Europe are constantly confronted with the rise of fake news and hate speech, particularly on the internet and social networks, and this has worsened significantly in the last years. This makes the use of these media not only an interesting opportunity to local politicians but also a challenge. Fake news and hate speech have powerful repercussions on the work of mayors and counselors and more broadly on the functioning of democracy, especially during election or referendum campaigns. It is clear that responses to stop fake news and hate speech must go beyond side blocking or content filtering. In order to do more, the Congress has engaged in a scientific cooperation project involving academics and experts from university institutions in Ludwigsburg, Budapest, Bucharest, Kosic and Vienna. This inter-university research project will explore the trends and the harms of fake news and hate speech and the ways in which they affect local democracy. Congress members will contribute their own experience to this project and it will result in a report with policy recommendations for fighting online fake news and hate speech in the local and regional context. This report will be presented at the Congress session in March next year. Dear colleagues, local and regional authorities, they do play a crucial role in responding to the threat of this information which undermines the good functioning of our democracy. Elected representatives at grassroots level are the authorities closest to the citizens. They must take the advantage of their direct relation with the citizens and the higher level of confidence they enjoy to ensure regular communication of information that people can trust. We, the Congress and the Committee of the Regents as institutions representing these authorities must use our networks for pooling experiences and disseminating good practice to counter the spread of this disinformation. And I look forward to our discussion on this matter today. And I thank you for your attention. Thank you so much, President Fervik, for your contribution. Now we're gonna open the floor to the participation of members and I will give the floor to our colleague, Mark Spike, for two minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President, for the floor. And please allow me to switch to my native German. We just heard Mr. President Fervik about this. Disinformation undermines the foundation of our democracy. Therefore, the theme for the SIVEX-Fachkommission, which I consider to be the highest priority, we have been working intensively this year with this topic, dealing with expert conversations, exchanging experiences and also dealing with the counter strategies. And I can promise that we will continue to deal with this topic. This is, in view of the greater impact of disinformation on our society, also necessary. There is an obvious connection between disinformation and the trust loss of public institutions. And the regional and the communal policy is particularly affected here. The worst case is for disinformation to hate and violence. And politicians on the regional and communal level are less protected here than those on the central state level. The fate of our former colleague Pavel Adamowicz is a constant demand here. We have to work harder to protect these politicians and politicians. I am grateful that the Congress of the municipalities and regions of Europe has called for committed initiatives here. And I must say that we want to deepen the cooperation and that we support this approach. When it comes to fake news and to fight disinformation, we have to bond all forces. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now the floor goes to Franz Schausberger. Two minutes. You have the floor, Schausberger. Two minutes. Yes, Mr. President, thank you very much. For the FOP-Fraktion, I would like to emphasize that with all opinion and media freedom, the struggle of the always-growing disinformation is decisive for a functioning and resistance-based democracy. This is especially true for the irresponsible disinformation in the course of the corona pandemic. And I know why I'm talking about it. For example, we in Austria have an extremely radical campaign against the parties, which shows itself in a terrifying split of society and in a low-income rate. And all those who do this in relation to freedom are the most illiberal groups that you can imagine at all. These deliberately produced disinformation polarize our societies and hinder the difficult and difficult democratic action in our regional and local communities. That is also very important. And in this case, there are often regional and communal choices. On the EU and national level, the instruments of disinformation are unfortunately still very limited and have to be thoroughly expanded. I very much welcome this collaboration between ADR and Congress. The regions and municipalities can become much more active in the fight against fake news, especially in the field of education, and the young people are able to recognize the critical environment with media content and to recognize fake news. I would also like to focus on the special presence of this topic in our neighborhood, the West Balkans and in the Austrian partnership. That is where the disinformation from European players in the East and West is even stronger and not only affects the inner political life, but also the image of the European Union. Thank you. Now I give the floor. The floor goes to Carlisle Lombards for four minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Dear colleagues, the proliferation of fake news, the discourse of hate and disinformation is gravely difficult and in danger for our democracies. I am particularly pleased that this topic is discussed today in the presence of the president of the local and regional congress of the Council of Europe, Mr. Linn-Werbeck, because if there is a topic that is really close to this cooperation between our two institutions, it is really this one. The work that you have presented, Mr. President, proves that you have a very rich contribution to bring to this common discussion, and I hope that we will be able to coordinate our efforts even more in this subject. Indeed, nowadays, the access to information is infinitely easier and faster than ever, but at the same time, for many citizens, the classical media no longer represent the main source of information and the most reliable. It has been the years that social media has taken over it as a source of information with also a remarkable age gap. The notion of fact and truth has become relative, and it is very, very serious. In the context of the pandemic, the disinformation accompanied by conspiracy theories has reached a real remarkable level. Apart from the strong negative repercussions that they have had on the European economy, the coronavirus pandemic has also aggravated the political, social and cultural discrimination. The disinformation companies have suggested that the pandemic attest the presence of foreign actors whose will is to save the European Union by diffusing propaganda and conspiracy theories and by inciting fear. And I also greet the work done by the Special Commission of the European Parliament. These companies are attacking our values, the European democracy at a multidimensional level and our social cohesion. At the same time, they can save the state when it aims at public health. As elected local and regional, we are confronted with the daily rise of fake news, of hate speech, and especially on the Internet and social networks. The PSE group would like to see a greater transparency of social networks in the way in which they propose their content to the users, as well as the logic that encourages them politically or economically. Therefore, the Commission will have to disappear from the urgency of the grey legal zones by pushing them to transparency and to align the urgent necessity of increasing the control exerted by the users. It is up to them to be imperative to involve local and regional voters in strategic decisions that reveal infrastructure, cyber security, culture and education, including the area of digital alphabetization. Moreover, territorial authorities can often repair the first and most important developments in this state. It is essential to define and implement adequate countermeasures. And I also believe that we must really focus on the problem of algorithms, because the world today is dominated and governed by algorithms much more than by politicians. And there, it is a deadly danger for our democracies. And I would like to once again to finish the results of the project that the Congress launched on disinformation. And I hope that we can continue to cooperate at the level of the implementation of the conclusions. I thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lambert. And now I give the floor to our colleague Tobias Godfard for three minutes. Thank you, Mr. President. I can also say a thank you to Mr. President Verbeck and the Congress for the excellent cooperation in the implementation of disinformation and fake news. I am convinced that the municipalities, the regions and also the education can play a central role in the topic. Disinformation always needs two. It needs a transmitter and a receiver that takes this false information. And that's why you have to apply to the receivers. Our Bavarian Constitution. Yesterday, at the age of 75, the article 125 said, children have a desire to develop self-determination and responsibility-based personalities. And I think it also says very well what we need in this fight against disinformation. We therefore have to apply in the education sector in schools. In Bavaria, for example, we already have a media leader from the basic schools, from elementary schools. We have to see that in the teaching training, the ability to recognize disinformation and to teach the children in it, we continue to build. We build in Bavaria a very strong cooperation with the youth associations. The Bavarian youth association is a strong partner in the fight against fake news and disinformation and the education of young people. We also have to pay attention to the fact that the media has a lot of content. This is not just a question of the law, but also a question of the market, a question of the concentration of the market. And I think that we are in the area of the local media, local newspapers, local radio or TV stations just have to see that there is a lot of content to be able to provide information. And last but not least, we as politicians, we can't pull ourselves back into a bubble, a bubble that we form. We have to create a participative, parliamentary culture and live. And that is very, very strong for me, especially in the regional parliament, the citizen dialogue, the integration of people. We have to actively design the digital change in democracy and also develop parliamentary technical possibilities to be able to shape it. And we have to, and this is a task that I also see in the European Union, very strongly anchored, we have to see that we are together on the European level to ensure that we have a democratic resilience. We talk a lot about resilience when it comes to goods, but it also comes with the democratic resilience. And there we have to see together that we are always up to date to go against what is challenging us. But let's start with the young people. The best thing is, if a sender doesn't find a receiver, because the receiver knows what's wrong. And what's right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our colleague Anna Magyard for two and a half minutes. Thank you. Dear President Saarbeck, two months ago you paid the troops for working visit to Hungary in frame of a conference meeting where our Hungarian central, regional and local government representatives had an opportunity to discuss with you ideas aiming at fostering a local democracy in Europe. I remember this visit very well because apart from being a member of the European Committee of the Region, I'm also a member of the Congress of the Council of Europe and I was involved in this preparations. In Hungary we discussed how to represent local and regional government at international level and successfully lobby for the interests of the citizens. You underlined Congress's unique role in the institutional architecture of the Council of Europe and the significance of the European Charter of Local and the Local Sub-Government. That meeting made me think that the role of the Committee of the Regions in the institutional setup is, in fact, not very different from that of the Congress. The two have much in common. That is why we need to reflect how to create more synergies between them. A good practical example of our cooperation in the past was the joint election observation mission. Elections was observation in a vital activity in terms of combating and preventing disinformation and countering one-sided storytelling. Observation missions involve members from different countries and political groups. Thanks to this, they are the source of more impartial information about the electoral processes than what we see in some media. As the latter often focus on too much on promoting certain ideological views and too little on facts. I regret the joint observation missions between the Congress and the Committee of the Regions where discontinued in year 2018, as I understand due to financial reasons. Both institutions are now engaging in a fight for bigger budgets. If their goals are achieved, I would like to see bilateral cooperation to in terms of elections observations between the Congress and the Committee. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our colleague, Victoria Alsina-Ilurgues. You have the floor for two minutes. In the context of citizen security, the Catalan police have taken part in a protocol to address the infractions of hate and discrimination. In the context of health, the competent department with the Catalan audiovisual council has been united to fight against the disinformation linked to COVID-19. In the context of sensitization, the Catalan cyber security agency has also generated a platform to combat this effect. In the context of the protection of journalists and human rights defenders, a series of exhaustive reports have been prepared on the matter that has been transferred to the European Commission. In the international context, from the department that I work with, the positioning and recommendations in the framework of the information about disinformation have been transferred to the Commission of the United Nations of Human Rights. Initiatives of the Catalan civil society complement this effort between the College of Journalists and the critical observatory of the media. Thank you very much for your attention and I am delighted to be able to represent the government in this organization and to be able to continue to work together to overcome this disinformation. Thank you so much. And now I give the floor to Dan Boyle for two minutes. Dan Boyle, you have the floor. Thank you, Vice President. Mr. Verbeck is president that Congress is quite correct in saying that there is a job of work to be done by political institutions to win the confidence of the general public. To do this, we need to put in place the highest possible standards of ethics, probity and accountability. And if we're honest with ourselves, there is a significant job of work to do that across the European Union. In relation to disinformation itself, I think we need to look at the media in its entirety, the traditional media as well as social media. We need to challenge more strongly the question of media ownership. We need to have more clarity in terms of how we define news organizations. Many news organizations are in fact opinion organizations and opinion organizations of vested interests. And we need to have measures put in place that helps the integrity of the information process as well as improves our collective will to understand information and how it can be best understood. We need to individually understand what the source of the information is, where are they coming from in making disinformation available, and are there other sources that can back up or verify disinformation? Otherwise, we're going to continue the trend of how we're dealing with the pandemic, how we're not properly or dealing with the climate emergency, and how political institutions themselves are becoming devalued. Social media itself, which is quite obviously not fulfilling a role in terms of public information, it's not only the different information itself, it's the quality of the discourse that many of the debates that are entered into have nothing to do with the subject matter at all, but are concerted attempts to make the argument maker or the point giver seem a bad person in the first place for having the audacity of asking questions and making comment. So it's a huge battle. We have to put aside our preconceived notions of how we have done this in the past, and we have to educate, really educate, and use our systems of education to make sure that not only the quality of information, but the level and quality of the discourse we engage in in the future is far, far better than it has been. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Now this concludes the interventions from the political groups. We have three more requests for the floor. I'll give immediately the floor to our colleague, Ellen Nalta Van Mursel for one minute. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President, and I will keep it short. This is a long day. Dear Mr. Leendert, it's nice that you are with us this afternoon and it's also nice to have an inspiring introduction for you. Thank you. This information has some consequences on the local and regional democracy, that has already been said. While it is important that the citizens, companies and civil society are involved in our policy-making and decision-making, and that can only be done as a trust. It is also essential that local and regional governments are in state to take on disinformation. It is clear that the Committee and the Congress know about disinformation the same challenges and can learn a lot from each other. I also think that it is important that the Committee and Congress work together here and then also want to imagine to take the results of the investigation of the Congress into the study of the Committee. For example, by taking the results in the report or by the reporters and researchers of the Congress to the study. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. Now the floor goes to our colleague Peter Kaiser. For one minute, you have the floor. Yes, Oskar Nekmeinte, democracy has to be fought again every day. This is more than ever in the question of communication in the digital age. Clear, open communication has to be put into the fight against disinformation as the most important means of style. It is also important to me to emphasize that we should not judge citizens and citizens, but rather such strong political parties and other fake producers who don't want anything else than with disinformation from the real democratic areas. Those are the opponents. We are trying to do this right now in Austria against parties who use this disinformation as political style means. It is important for me that there are two other things that are very important. We need stronger legal rules. We need this Europe, we need it globally. We need this multi-level governance approach. And the second, we need democratic educational processes in the educational institutions. Young people have to be drawn to criticality. These are our democratic means. I think something happened to the intervention of our colleague. It was just concluding, but nevertheless. Well, we move on with our colleague, Ascon Navarro, you have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much, dear Vice President and colleagues. This is an important problem, disinformation and fake news. It is possibly one of the most important problems that our democracy suffers. We suffer it in the day-to-day and in specific and punctual issues. We are suffering it today with many information that has to do with the vaccine and we suffer it in my country and we have suffered it in specific regions of our country when we have had problems with democracy and we have had problems with Catalan independence. We have suffered attacks coordinated from outside the European Union that have to do with disinformation. It is true that there are no magical formulas to end this. But the first and most important thing is what I think we are doing here today. Taking awareness of this problem, giving it the importance it has, talking about our main weapon against disinformation, the communication means, serious, the communication means of all life and of course not confusing the censorship with the necessary filters that the information has to have. Thank you very much. Thank you and I don't have any other requests for the floor. So I would invite President Fervik to final remarks. If you wish so, you have the floor, President Fervik. Thank you. Thank you very much and I'm happy I have some time to take the floor. I know the planning of the meeting. I'll make some remarks in general because it's too difficult, I think, to respond to each individual who spoke to you. I'm happy with the remarks. I'm happy with the support that you express on this topic. And it's my own experience in my own daily work. I'm one of the commissioners of the King in the Netherlands that's a governor. If we look to what happens in daily life that this is kind of issue that's very complex and it's very important that we as politicians understand this is a complex issue and that we don't walk away from it. It's a complex issue and it takes courage to start working on complex issues. And we need many people, we need people like you who take the courage to start a complex thing like that. That's important. A second remark I would like to make is that in my opinion this is not only a debate about what others should be doing. It's also a debate what you are doing in your own surroundings and what I am doing. Not as only as a congress, not only as a committee, but also each of you individual in your own working surroundings. What are you doing in this complex situation? It's not enough only to have meetings about it and writing reports. It needs action. And we see several opportunities. We see many possibilities. So it's important we exchange this information, but we need action from each individual. And it's very clear for me also as president of the congress, but also in my normal role in the Netherlands, that it's quite clear that topics like these cannot be answered on the national scale. We need the authorities who have a direct relation with the civilians, who have a direct relations with the companies, who have a direct relation with anybody in society, that works on these things, that has trouble because of these things. We need the direct contact. And that's you. That's me. And that's not the national government. And in some of our countries, in my opinion, the national governments do not recognize enough the importance of the role that local and regional authorities play. It's also clear, and I think we should be willing to discuss this too, there are different types of false information. It's not all the same, it's not the same pile, because there is misinformation out of ignorance. People just don't know. They just copy what other people have said. And one of the programs we all should carry is that democratization, democratization, that's a difficult word for me, of knowledge is very important. There are too few who know too much. We should share knowledge much more with our people who live in our cities. We should share the information about the projects we are doing. We should not share only parts for strategic reasons. We should be open, we should have open communication. We should tell the people the information that are at the bottom line of the work that we are doing. People get suspicious because they have the feeling, they have the intuition, not all the information is shared that makes them suspicious. This is a different kind of problem than the fake news that's also used for political reasons. Fake news that's used for destabilizing the situation. And I'm very worried myself if we see, I don't know if I can say that in the surroundings, but I see a rise of fascism where groups of people deliberately try to destabilize the society. This is a different kind of debate. And this also needs courage. Courage from you, from me to stand up in these situations, to give clear answers, to make clear that destabilizing is not the solution to the problems that you are discussing. But we see groups that think that destabilizing is the solution, but it's not. It's making it more and more complex and it will make casualties. Casualties, usually in areas of people who are out of ignorance not knowing what they're doing. So we should analyze very careful what is the situation. Is this a lack of knowledge or is this a political action? And then we should act. We should train ourselves. We should train the people around us. We should do educational activities to know how to deal with these situations. And once again, I want to stress this. This is not only a job of your committee. It's not only a job of our Congress, but the job can only be done if each of you is willing to do so. Stand up in the front.  That's why I'm a politician. Be clear in your communication. Be honest in the information. Do not hide information. So you get the confidence of the people you're working with. That's my firm belief that that's the path we have to go. But we must be honest. We make quite some mistakes in this path. That's the truth. I make mistakes, you make mistakes too. We should learn better to do this much better than we do nowadays, because partly we created the problem ourselves, I think. We're responsible for the problem too. It's not only the others. That's what I'd like to say. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, President Furbic, for your thoughts and for your experience and for your leadership in this issue. So this concludes our debate on this issue. And I would like once more to thank President Furbic for being with us today and sharing with us his talks and his opinions. Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna move forward to point 20. It's a presentation of opinions. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that any possible discussion about amendments must take place during the presentation of the opinions during the debate that follows the presentation. So when we vote, it's only voting. So now we're gonna go to point 20. Point 20 is an opinion on the European Commission Report and Competition Policy in 2020. Our colleague, Tadeusz Truskolowski, is the rapporteur and we also have the pleasure of having with us Andreas Schwab, member of the European Parliament that will participate in this discussion. Without further delay, and to use the floor during five minutes, I give the floor to Tadeusz Truskolowski. You have the floor. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, I'm honored to have the honor to be part of the European Commission Report and the Econ Commission to present an opinion on the policy of the competition in 2020. Ladies and gentlemen, those who have read this opinion see that the great beauty of this opinion was suppressed by the disease, was suppressed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But we have to look forward to this opinion on the one hand, on the present, and on the other hand, on the basis of the future regulation. The goal of the competition rules is to ensure the proper functioning of the domestic market. The effective policy of the competition enables the company to compete in new conditions. This, on the other hand, increases the innovation and long-term economic growth. The policy of the competition is the key tool of the domestic market and the guarantee of economic prosperity. The first part of the opinion is devoted to the support of the company during the pandemic, which I mentioned a while ago. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that financial aid should be designed and recognized in a transparent and responsible way in terms of social, economic and environmental. The second part concerns the problems of modern European markets. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that digitalization is particularly important for the MSP, because it eliminates the limitations that arise from the use of geographical integration. Our actions should be aimed at strengthening the meaning of the ordering of the dominant position in the market. We should also support the actions of the services experienced in the general economic interest, which remain necessary for the survival of the entire society in Europe, especially in the isolated, remote, and peripheral regions of the United States. This guarantees them a longer and greater competitiveness. Another important aspect is the environment of the United European market, and therefore the economic relations with the third countries. We should ensure that we maintain the free market rules. Their guarantee is a regulation. We cannot stop the process of de-concentration of the chain of values. I repeat the implementation of goals concerning the international struggle with social inequalities and the climate crisis which requires action in accordance with all the conditions that are required, such as production, employment, or environmental conditions from outside of the European Union. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for all the 13 amendments. We are aware that the policy of the competition of the European Union requires a wide-scale consideration. Thank you. I have also prepared two auto repairs, the repairs of the driver's license, which include our conditions in accordance with certain regulations. So these repairs have been officially announced. 13, 9 were accepted by me, 2 of which I did not agree with. And up to 3, I have prepared two auto repairs which, perhaps in one case, will be related to some language issues and issues related to translation. I would also like to thank all of you for these amendments, but also thank and introduce my expert, who is right behind me, Dr. Kamil Waligura from the University of Biamstok, who is an outstanding economist and who worked in the final form of this opinion. So, thank you once again. I am happy that I can be here in Brussels live and I would like to have a discussion as well as an opinion. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that I've tested some disinformation on you. After all, we don't have Andreas Schwab. It's my fault, it was my mistake. And we don't have any other requests for the floor to intervene about this opinion. Yes, we have. Isold Reis, you have the floor for one minute. Good day, my colleague is a colleague and she wasn't wrong. I just gave my word message at the last press conference. I would like to thank Mr. Truskulaski for his report in the name of the S.P.E. faction, also from ECON, because I think it is really important that the legislation was relaxed, but not only because it was relaxed because of Corona, but also because of the economic situation and because of the application to become climate neutral. We need legislation that does not cut off the industry, but that helps them. We need support for investments and for operating costs. And we need to help in general so that it can provide the company with money in the future in these difficult conditions, not only from the EU, but also from government and countries. And that only works with relaxedness and that's why it has to be extended. Thank you very much, Mr. Truskulaski. Thank you. I don't have any requests from the floor. So Mr. Truskulaski, if you wish to add something as final remarks, you have three minutes for that. You have the floor for three minutes. Thank you very much. Thank you. On the one hand, you can say that if this discussion was not too lively, I mean, I can draw such a conclusion that most of the people agree with this opinion. Thank you very much, Ms. Reis, which expressed this opinion and the values that it represents. Please, I think this is an important voice, an important voice of the regional committee, an important voice of our local communities. I am President of Białystok, a city located in the north-eastern part of Poland. And we, unfortunately, are complaining that our voice is not heard enough in our country. That's why I am happy that the European Union, the regional committee, all the values that we have entered into the European Union are being neglected and that they are being supported. I think that great hope in the European Union is that the units will have the right role in Poland as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Truskalowski. That concludes our debate and this opinion.