On 25 January the Special Committee on Foreign Interference and Disinformation (INGE) called on the European Union and its Member States, by adopting its report on the subject (25 votes in favour, 8 against and 1 abstention), to take further action against foreign interference including large-scale disinformation campaigns, “including in the form of setting up a sanctions regime”.
According to MEPs, the EU and its Member States do not currently have a specific sanctions regime for foreign interference and disinformation campaigns orchestrated by foreign state actors, “which means that these actors can safely assume that their destabilisation campaigns against the EU will be without consequences”.
MEPs call on the European Commission to propose a “multi-layered, coordinated and cross-sectoral” strategy and adequate financial resources to provide the EU and its Member States with appropriate policies of “foresight and resilience” and deterrence tools to deal with all hybrid threats and attacks orchestrated by foreign actors, both state and non-state. This strategy would be centred around four areas: (1) common definitions, a single methodology, ex-post evaluation and impact assessment of legislation adopted thus far, a shared intelligence system, as well as understanding, monitoring including early warnings, and knowledge of the state of play of the issues at stake; (2) concrete policies to build resilience among EU citizens in line with democratic values, including support for civil society; (3) appropriate disruption and defence capabilities; (4) diplomatic and deterrence responses.
According to MEPs, the EU needs to improve cybersecurity, by, for example, investing in the EU’s strategic cybercrime capabilities and capacities to detect, expose and combat foreign interference and by compiling a list of illegal surveillance software.
MEPs also want the European Commission to develop a better response framework to counter foreign interference in electoral processes. They want a ban on foreign funding of European political parties, clarification of the “highly inappropriate” relationship between some European political parties and Russia, and for digital election infrastructure to be considered as a critical entity.
The elected representatives are also calling for better public awareness, stronger rules for social media platforms and support for pluralistic media and fact-checkers.
MEPs also believe that it should be made more difficult for foreign actors to recruit senior politicians too soon after they leave office.
The report is expected to be voted on by all MEPs at the March plenary session. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)