YouTube Brings Its “Interviewing The President” Format To Europe

On two previous occasions, American President Barack Obama sat down with YouTube stars, who peppered him with questions about social, cultural, and political topics. Now, that same format will be applied to a chat with a major European leader. On September 15th, YouTubers Jonas Ems, Laetitia Birbes, and Łukasz Jakóbiak will sit down with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to talk about issues facing their continent.

In setting up its interviews with President Obama, YouTube made sure to call upon creators who represented both an accurate slice of its creative community and a blend of races, genders, and ethnicities. In choosing creators to talk to Juncker, the video site opted for a similar strategy, choosing a diverse trio of hosts. Ems is a 19-year-old German commentator and comedian, Birbes is a French vlogger with a

passion for social justice, and Jakóbiak is a Polish interviewer with a DIY sensibility. According to a YouTube blog post, the three creators will work input from fans into their respective presentations by checking the #AskJuncker hashtag.

The conversation between these three creators and the man who represents their interests as the head of the European Union’s executive branch will go like on the European Commission’s official YouTube channel (which carries the punny name “eutube”). There, it will join a video that offers Juncker’s full State of the Union address, which he delivered a day prior to his YouTube interview.

The interview will begin streaming at 10 AM CET (5 AM ET) on the 15th. Once it concludes, an on-demand version will become available.