In her State of the Union address to the European Parliament plenary on Wednesday 14 September, Ursula von der Leyen announced a ‘Defence of Democracy Package’ aimed at protecting the EU’s democratic sphere from covert foreign influence.
To illustrate her point, the President of the European Commission referred to the closure of a research centre (Cross Cultural Human Rights Centre) at the University of Amsterdam funded by Chinese entities, which refuted evidence of forced labour camps for Uighurs as rumours. Faced with the need to “better shield ourselves from malign interference”, the objective will be to “bring covert foreign influence and shady funding to light”, she said.
“We introduced legislation to screen foreign direct investment in our companies for security concerns. If we do that for our economy, shouldn’t we do the same for our values?”, she asked MEPs. “We will not allow any autocracy’s Trojan horses to attack our democracies from within”.
Last July, the Council of the EU invited the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the European Commission to present measures that could be taken against actors of foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) when necessary to protect public order and the security of the EU (see EUROPE 12996/4).
See the Commission’s letter of intent: https://aeur.eu/f/32e (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)