On Tuesday 12 March, MEPs questioned the European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, on EU Member State governments’ measures and preparations to combat foreign interference. Against the backdrop of the war it is waging in Ukraine and attempts at manipulation within the EU in the run-up to the June elections, Russia was the focus of the discussion.
Some MEPs questioned Ms Jourová on the measures that the Commission intends to put in place to limit the risks of widespread disinformation during the elections. On this point, the Czech Commissioner began by stressing the importance of being able to rely on texts such as the DSA (see EUROPE 13362/9), which should encourage the major online platforms to fulfil their responsibilities in terms of democracy and artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 13368/32).
“I have asked the political groups to resist the temptation of ‘deepfakes’”, she said, pointing out that most of the digital giants, such as ByteDance and Meta - with the exception of X (formerly Twitter) - have pledged in recent months to take action against these methods during elections.
Reacting to French MEP for the Renew Europe group, Nathalie Loiseau, who said that “Europe is a sieve for interference”, Commissioner Jourová conceded that the EU needed to continue its work to better defend itself. To achieve this, she said on several occasions, the role of the EU27, who do not appreciate “receiving instructions or advice from Brussels”, is central, with Russia having “tailored strategies in each Member State”.
The issue of individuals, entities or political groups echoing the rhetoric of Russian President Vladimir Putin within the EU also came up several times in the discussions.
“Mr Putin needs mouths to speak in the national languages to get his message across. There are people in every Member State who are sympathetic to Putin. There are individuals, parties and movements who are sometimes in parliaments or in power in certain governments and who are spreading this pro-Kremlin rhetoric in their countries”, said Ms Jourová. However, she refused to name them within the Strasbourg hemicycle, despite a barely disguised appeal from Hannah Neumann (Greens/EFA, German) to do so.
To curb disinformation and interference, the European Commissioner also stressed the importance of EU sanctions against figures close to the government in Moscow, as well as the need to increase transparency within the institutions through registers. “The Parliament, the Council and the Commission will have to take stock of the register during the next term of office, to see whether it meets needs and to draw lessons from it”, she said. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)