MEPs called on Tuesday 6 July for more incisive action at EU level to combat foreign interference in democratic processes, especially disinformation.
“Vulnerable to these attacks, permeable to these interferences, our democracies are at major risk, and the prevention of and response to these threats are of paramount importance”, stressed the chair of the INGE special committee, Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, France).
“The EU must apply a strategy to defend democracy, which must be applied now”, said Pierfrancesco Majorino (S&D, Italy).
For Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (Greens/EFA, Germany), the EU must act with structures within which Member States can synchronise their policies and make the cost of interference higher for perpetrators.
“The EU is only at the beginning of the road to mitigating threats”, said Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvia). Like several MEPs, she called for an additional budget and resources for the strategic communication teams of the European External Action Service.
“We need to work together to give Europe the necessary instruments to fight these actions [...], to attack those who attack us, whether they are in Beijing or Moscow”, added Marco Dreosto (ID, Italian), who stressed the need to strengthen synergy with NATO. For Thierry Mariani (ID, France), the EU must also fight against US interference. He said he was “worried about the climate where if you tweak the majority opinion, you are labelled as an agent of the foreigner”.
For Clare Daly (The Left, Ireland), the situation is more complex than ‘truth versus disinformation’, and each side tries to put forward its own version of the truth. We must “fight disinformation, not censor”, Mr Dreosto also warned.
EU High Representative Josep Borrell acknowledged that much more needed to be done, saying it would take time. Referring to the possibility of sanctions against the authors of disinformation, he recalled that it was not easy to define the concept of disinformation, but that the EU was working on it. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)