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On 28-29 June 2026, the parliamentarians of the Baltic Sea states met in the third meeting of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC) Working Group on Strengthening Cyber and Information Resilience to Promote Democracy (WG SCIRPD) in Hamburg, Germany.
Chair of the WG SCIRPD and Member of the Security and Defence Committee of the Baltic Assembly Meelis Kiili opened the meeting by emphasising that for centuries, Hamburg has been one of the great maritime gateways of northern Europe - a city whose prosperity and security have always depended on open and protected sea lanes, and today on the cables and digital connections that run alongside them. He also highlighted the theme of the meeting: artificial intelligence (AI) and the resilience of democracies. “AI is reshaping how our societies are informed, how they are governed, and how they are attacked. Our task is to consider how liberal democracies answer that: firmly, and without surrendering the freedoms we are here to defend”, he stated.
Expert presentations
Professor Gary S. Schaal of Helmut Schmidt University warned that the security threat is no longer only external - it is structural and internal. Declining trust in democracy, weakening social cohesion and growing epistemic cynicism create fertile ground for manipulation that hostile actors can exploit at speed and scale. The key conclusion was clear: democracies must not respond by controlling truth, surveilling ordinary speech or overblocking communication, but by building rights-preserving security by design, for example, defending manipulative behaviour rather than content, creating legally sound anticipatory crisis protocols, strengthening media literacy and prebunking, treating the public sphere as critical infrastructure, investing in sovereign European AI, as well as rehearsing cross-sector responses through joint regional initiatives.
Professor Dr Gerhard Schreiber of the Helmut Schmidt University emphasised that military AI is no longer a future question, but a present reality reshaping defence decision-making. As AI accelerates analysis, innovation and deployment, the key challenge is not only technological advantage, but responsibility – while AI systems may support decisions, they cannot bear responsibility. Therefore, ethics must be built into design, testing, procurement, training and use from the start. Meaningful human control, democratic oversight and clear accountability must remain central to ensure that military AI is used lawfully, ethically and responsibly.
Afterwards, Prof. Dr. Maria Maleshkova and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Oliver Niggemann, with their research teams, gave a live showcase on the topic of "AI in Security-Critical Systems", covering sensor-data fusion, AI-generated maritime situational awareness, anomaly detection and AI-assisted diagnostics. The presentation underlined that resilient societies depend on reliable data, strong data fusion and responsible AI. In security-critical areas such as maritime situational awareness, AI can help combine diverse sources, detect anomalies early and turn complex data into actionable insights. At the same time, AI must remain an enabler, not a decision-maker. Human control, clear regulation, interoperability and international cooperation are essential to ensure that AI strengthens resilience, security and democracy.
During the meeting, members of the WG SCIRPD reviewed the recommendations put forward following the previous meetings, as well as added new topics: how to fight disinformation without restricting the freedoms that distinguish democracies from the regimes deploying it against them, as well as age-appropriate education that equips young people to recognise manipulation and resist its effect on democratic life. The full recommendations will be published in the interim report to the 35th BSPC in Lübeck.
