Europe Talks is part of My Country Talks, an initiative started in 2017 by the German media outlet Zeit Online. In an age of fragmented discourse, the goal is to bring strangers together to discuss different views on common issues. Since the first edition of Germany Talks (Deutschland Spricht), My Country Talks has gathered over 100,000 people in over 30 countries for political dialogue programs.
Europe Talks is open to anyone who considers themselves European. Whether you have lived in Europe all your life or just part of it, whether you have lived in one country or many, Europe Talks is a space for you to share your ideas.
You will be paired with someone with a different political view, in another European country. The My Country Talks software automatically matches you based on the way you answer the registration survey, and based on the location you give when you sign up.
Sometimes, there will not be a good match for you based on either your opinion or your location. When that happens you will be offered a partner who might agree with you but is based in another country, or someone in your own country who has different opinions. In rare cases, you may not be given a match. If that happens, we still encourage you to participate in the digital live event on December 13th, 2020.
Unless you arrange otherwise, you and your partner will have an unmoderated and private conversation. This can seem intimidating, but don’t feel pressured - you don’t have to solve Europe’s big issues. The goal is simply to create an open conversation between two people who would probably never meet otherwise.
Beyond getting to know your conversation partner, we encourage you to go over the survey question and just listen to what they have to say. We have also published Ten Rules for a Good Debate to help you have a respectful and enjoyable discussion about politics.
First, you and your partner should set up a meeting for 3:00PM (15:00 CET) on December 13th. To actually have the conversation, you are free to use any digital service you like, either video conference or just an old-fashioned phone call. If you are having technical difficulties or need help setting up a call, you can refer directly to your service provider.
We know that signing up to meet a stranger, especially one with different political views, can be daunting. It’s kind of like online dating. That’s why we also require both conversation partners to consent after being matched. Once you have been paired with a conversation partner, both participants need to agree for the meeting to move forward.
Note: If you decide not to move forward with your match, or if your match decides not to meet with you, you will unfortunately not be able to re-match. However, you are welcome to participate in all the other digital live programming on December 13th.
When you sign up, your personal data as well as the answers to the survey questions, are processed and stored by My Country Talks. If you sign up via one of our media partners, they will also have access to your name and answers, as well as the name of your conversation partner.
After the event, your information will be permanently erased from all databases. Some of your information may be used to report on trends from the event, but only as a small part of a large, anonymous aggregate. We never store personal or identifiable data given by participants. You can learn more by reading our full privacy policy.
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