The spokesman for the European External Action Service (EEAS), Peter Stano, rejected, on Monday 27 April, allegations of pressure from China concerning the publication of an EU report on disinformation.
On Friday 24 April, on the occasion of the publication of a report by the European External Action Service on disinformation in connection with COVID-19, an article in the New York Times revealed Chinese pressure on the Union to remove its criticism of Beijing from the document. According to the US media, the report, although published, has been softened.
“I absolutely refute and dispute any indications or claims that in our reporting we are bowing to any kind of external pressure”, Mr Stano said. According to him, there are two reports: one internal and one public, and these two reports were designed according to different objectives and procedures.
The spokesman declined to say whether there had been any exchanges between the EU and China on the report before its publication, explaining that diplomatic exchanges are confidential.
In any case, the EPP group in the European Parliament asked the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, to “explain in detail and without delay what happened to the report”. According to the group's vice-president for Foreign Affairs, Sandra Kalniete (Latvia), it would be “totally unacceptable” if the EEAS, “charged with providing the EU public with full and unbiased information and to defend Europe in this disinformation campaign, proved to be ready to backtrack on its findings and fall victim itself to foreign propaganda”.
See the EEAS report on disinformation: https://bit.ly/2Yea523 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)