The European Parliament’s Special Committee on Foreign Interference (ING2) adopted ,on Wednesday 26 April, a report calling for a “coordinated strategy” of the EU against covert foreign influence (see EUROPE 13098/12).
A coordinated strategy
“The EU continues to lag behind and suffer from a fragmented approach”, said Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvian) in a written statement ahead of the vote. “Significant and lasting investments must be made to safeguard our democracy without delay, combined with comprehensive and coordinated strategy”. She also called for inspiration from “partners like Ukraine (and Taiwan)” in terms of resilience and the implementation of sanctions against the manipulation of information by foreign entities.
“My report outlines a clear and strategic vision for the way forward, including recommendations on how to strengthen our institutions, invest in capabilities, and equip our citizens with the tools to counter hostile disinformation”, she summarised. The text covers 11 separate chapters, ranging from the EU’s resilience to foreign interference to cyber security and critical infrastructure protection.
927 amendments
Validated with 27 votes in favour, one against and one abstention, the report has been significantly lengthened compared to its first version. And for good reason: MEPs tabled 927 amendments, summarised in 159 compromise amendments.
In general, members followed the ‘high-risk country approach’, proposed by Ms Kalniete. For example, they explicitly named the TikTok platform as a “source of Chinese-backed disinformation” or expressed concerns about Hungary’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels.
Lastly, in accordance with what Ms Kalniete wanted, references to ‘Qatargate’ (see EUROPE 13160/26) were finally limited. However, the amended text urges to “immediately suspend all work on legislative files relating to Qatar and Morocco, as well as for the access badges of representatives of interests of both countries”.
The draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/6jy
The amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/6js ; https://aeur.eu/f/6ju ; https://aeur.eu/f/6jx
And the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/6jq (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)