ECHO organizes Resonance Seminars which can be tuned into from anywhere, bringing together thinkers and creatives to inspire a
new wave of young people building Europe for the better.
Each Resonance Seminar focuses on a pressing topic, offering a medley of perspectives and insights,
as well as the opportunity to engage in those cross-border conversations.
Explore the offer of each Resonance Seminar - to challenge and spark the conversation from wherever you are in Europe.
as well as the opportunity to engage in those cross-border conversations.
Explore the offer of each Resonance Seminar - to challenge and spark the conversation from wherever you are in Europe.
Resonance II: Voices, power & influence: who gets heard in the EU?
15th of January 2026
Lobbyists, advocacy groups, corporate interests, NGOs, citizen movements - Brussels is full of actors trying to shape Europe’s future. Their influence reaches far beyond the EU Bubble, affecting national policies, local decisions, and ultimately, our daily lives. And yet: most of us know surprisingly little about who these groups are, how they work, and how we can influence them in return.
In the upcoming Resonance online seminar, we explore the fascinating world of EU lobbying, influence, and democratic impact. Together with two experts, we unravel how lobbyists operate, why their work matters, and how citizens, students, artists, and local communities can make their voices heard in Brussels - even from far away.
Speakers
1. Lise Witteman is an investigative journalist at Follow the Money, specialising in how lobby power shapes EU decision-making. She exposes gaps in transparency, cases of undue influence and moments when EU watchdogs failed to act - revealing why stronger democratic oversight is urgently needed in a lobbying landscape that increasingly affects all Europeans.
2. Rareș Voicu is the Vice-President of the European Youth Forum. He brings an insider view on how youth organisations influence EU decisions, and how young people can make themselves heard in a policymaking arena often dominated by older voices.
3. Chloé Mikolajczak is climate activist and co-founder of The Green Monki. She uncovers how corporate interests shape EU climate policy - and shows how creative campaigning and grassroots pressure can shift the balance, even from outside Brussels.
Register here for the online seminar
PASSED EVENT
Resonance I: How algorithms influence your elections (and what you can do about it)
Are TikTok and Instagram algorithms deciding what we vote for?
How do the algorithms of the big social media platforms shape the way we stay informed, and how do they influence our opinions and emotions during elections?
On Thursday the 23rd of October, we dove into these questions with three amazing journalists and researchers at the very first Resonance Online Seminar, bringing together voices from all across Europe. We discussed how the digital future is being shaped, what’s at stake for our democracies and what we can do about it.
Speakers:
👉 Romanian research journalist Răzvan Luţac from collective SNOOP.ro, who uncovered the TikTok disinformation scandal during the Romanian elections
👉 Dutch researcher Quirine van Eeden, who analyses the influence of social media platforms on the Dutch elections that are only days away
👉 Rejo Zenger from Dutch NGO Bits Of Freedom, who has recently successfully sued Meta for being the only one to decide what you see on your IG timeline
Visuals by @teaferrari_