Debate: Russiagate: allegations of Russian interference in the democratic processes of the European Union
Date: TUESDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2024
Speaker: Margaritis Schinas
Language: EN

Our democracy is strong and resilient, but needs to constantly evolve and adapt. We are all aware of the many threats, such as foreign interference coming from Russia or other authoritarian forces, but also floods of disinformation, fake news, cyberattacks, just to mention a few.  We have, collectively, to remain vigilant and address these risks decisively. Let me start first with the diagnostics. What are we really facing these days? Only two weeks ago, a report by the German Federal Foreign Office found that Russia had used more than 50 000 fake accounts on X, sending more than one million tweets in order to manipulate public opinion only in Germany. During the pandemic, systematic disinformation campaigns sought to foster doubts about the successful vaccination programmes of the EU. This showed that disinformation can really kill, because that was the worst moment when the death tolls were surging. I’m sure you would remember, as I do, the alleged Russian military vehicles going up and down the Italian highways to support the Italian COVID victims.  We are also witnessing, since February 2022, a wave of disinformation used as a weapon by Russia in their aggressive war against Ukraine. Distorting facts, publishing false de-Nazification narratives and trying to take advantage of war fatigue to shift priorities and attention.  Finally, we also now know of the multiple attempts to interfere with democratic processes and systems in the European Union across Europe that have also been made systematically by Russia and recognised and documented in the report of the European Parliament’s Special Committee.  Let me recall the findings of multiple studies of Russian-based social media accounts and Russian-paid online advertising, massively engaging in the days before the Brexit referendum in favour of leave.  We now know all the reports on close and regular contacts, including organised visits between Russian officials and representatives of a group of Catalan secessionists in Spain between 2017 and 2020.  Of course, it is deeply troubling, the recent allegations that a Member of this House could be working on behalf of the Russian federal security services. But I believe it’s a duty of this House to investigate who else did what, under what conditions, to play the game of Moscow.  Kremlin’s war of ideas is a multi-million euro weapon of mass manipulation. As we have already recognised in the Commission’s Security Union Strategy, it is used to mislead and deceive our citizens, divide, polarise and exploit the vulnerabilities of our societies, ultimately to destabilise the European democracy.  Let me now quickly, Mr President, come to the actions that we have been developing in the von der Leyen Commission to counter this unprecedented wave of Russian interference. We have developed six concrete initiatives. I will take them one by one. Step one: in December last year we propose the defence of democracy package. Then the idea is to focus on transparency and democratic accountability while addressing the issue of foreign interference. The key element of this package is a proposal for a directive laying down common transparency and accountability standards for interest representation on behalf of their countries.  Step number two: the recently agreed European Media Freedom Act will strengthen regulatory coordination in order to protect the internal media market from foreign outlets, those that engage in systematic international campaigns of manipulation and interference. With this law, we have also reached a political agreement on the regulation of transparency of political advertising.  Step number three: three years ago, together with Parliament and the Council, we reached the agreement on the Mandatory Transparency Register. We believe that the EU institutions must meet the highest standards of transparency and integrity.  Step number four: ethics and accountability. We have adopted a proposal for the creation of an interinstitutional ethics body and, with this proposal, there will be, for the first time, common standards for ethical conduct of members of all institutions.  We are proud in the Commission to have been following these rules to the letter. We really hope that the European institutions can work together to find an agreement on the creation of a body that would harmonise the conditions across the institutional landscape.  Step number five: in May, we presented a legislative proposal to update the criminal law approach to corruption. Our proposal would close the gaps between different definitions of corruption, so that all kinds of corruption phenomena are criminalised, including trading in influence, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice. Of course, all EU politicians, all members of the institutions, will be covered by this proposal.  Finally, step number six, and probably the ultimate weapon: we now have in the European Union a solid regulatory framework with the Digital Services Act that allows us to enable and deploy regulatory instruments against the platforms and those who refuse to cooperate in defending the citizens of Europe against this phenomenon. Thank you all for your participation today. I look forward to the debate.