The Council of Europe’s Head of Education Department, Villano Qiriazi, delivered a keynote contribution at the international conference “Media Literacy and Democracy Education for Societal Resilience”, held on 18–19 September at the Central Library Oodi in Helsinki. The event formed part of the Finnish and Ålandic Co-Presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers and gathered policymakers, experts and practitioners from across the Nordic region and beyond .

In his address, Mr Qiriazi underlined that education is the cornerstone of democratic resilience. Presenting the Council of Europe’s Education Strategy 2024–2030, “Educating for today’s and tomorrow’s democratic societies”, he stressed its three pillars:

• renewing the democratic and civic mission of education,
• enhancing the social responsibility of education, and
• advancing human-rights based digital transformation .

“Media literacy is the compass that helps young people navigate the digital public sphere, but it must be combined with the competences for democratic culture – such as critical thinking, empathy, and civic-mindedness – to strengthen resilience against disinformation and polarisation,” he noted.

Looking ahead, Mr Qiriazi highlighted three major Council of Europe initiatives that will shape the future of democratic education in Europe:

• the European Space for Citizenship Education, introducing for the first time quality standards and codified democratic principles for citizenship education across education systems;
• a new Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence Literacy, framing AI literacy as a civic and ethical competence essential for human rights and democracy;
• and a forthcoming Recommendation on History Education in the Digital Age, designed to help learners critically engage with history, resist manipulation, and use history as a resource for dialogue and trust .

These initiatives, he stressed, “will link media literacy, digital citizenship, democratic competences and resilience into a coherent framework – so that every learner in Europe can grow up an informed, critical and responsible digital citizen.”

The Helsinki conference, organised by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture with Nordic and European partners, also featured the launch of the Nordic Media Literacy Survey and a rich programme of exchanges on lifelong learning, youth participation, teacher training and the role of public libraries in fostering civic competences .

The event marked an important contribution to the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education 2025, led by the Council of Europe.