"Facebook founder and CEO has accepted our invitation and will be in Brussels as soon as possible, hopefully, next week," Tajani said in a statement.
Tajani confirmed that Europeans are entitled to an explanation of various personal data issues, including the scandal of abuse of data tens of millions of Facebook users by Cambridge Analytica.
"Our citizens are entitled to a full and detailed explanation and I welcome Mark Zuckerberg's decision to appear before a representative of 500 million Europeans," he explained.
The news of Zuckerberg's arrival in Europe comes a few days before the EU data protection regulation came into effect on May 25, 2018. Unfortunately, Zuckerberg's meeting and the European Parliament were conducted in private, unlike when he faced the United States Congress last month.Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO and founder, has accepted our invitation. He will come to the European Parliament. My full statement ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/FdmuDPl8Wb— Antonio Tajani (@EP_President) 16 Mei 2018
This closed meeting was criticized by some people. Belgian politician who is also the member of the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, announced it would boycott the meeting unless it was done openly.
"I will not be attending a meeting with Zuckerberg if done in private, this should be heard by the public, why not through Facebook Live?" he wrote on the Twitter account.
A number of sources in the European Parliament said a live public meeting would never happen. If the European Parliament is willing, not so with Zuckerberg.
"Zuckerberg will not come here so that members of the European Parliament can throw it with rotten fruits and vegetables, In the end, he comes to the European Parliament and I think it is a significant thing. This is good for Europe, as well as for the European Parliament," the source said.
