In a letter sent on Friday 31 January, twelve Member States have called on the European Commission to take action against “interference [...] during key electoral events” by third countries, in particular by speeding up the investigations currently underway under the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13560/4).
The signatories include France and Germany, who will be holding parliamentary elections on 23 February, and who are already receiving increased attention from national and European authorities (see EUROPE 13565/26).
A stress test was carried out this Friday with the European Commission, several online platforms – Google (YouTube), LinkedIn, Microsoft, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Snapchat, TikTok and X – as well as the German authorities and civil society organisations in order to prepare certain “fictitious scenarios aimed at identifying and reducing potential election-related risks” that “could pose a risk to civic discourse and electoral processes”.
According to Commission spokesperson Thomas Régnier, a response to the current investigations will be announced “ in due course”, but the current processes will not be accelerated. “It takes time, so we have to be careful. When we are ready, we will take the necessary measures”, he declared.
In a letter obtained by Agence Europe, the twelve countries “urge” the Commission to make full use of the powers conferred by the DSA. They also call on the EU to put forward “robust proposals” to strengthen the means of action at European level, by setting up a ‘shield for democracy’ (see EUROPE 13567/5) and drawing up “individual sanctions”, in order to “send a firm signal to those involved in destabilising activities”.
See the letter from the twelve EU countries: https://aeur.eu/f/fbk (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre, with Mathieu Bion)