Debate: Foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation - Election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections
Date: THURSDAY, 1 JUNE 2023
Speaker: Věra Jourová
Language: EN

The work of the INGE Committee and this House has been a real source of inspiration for the Commission. I want to congratulate the rapporteur, Sandra Kalniete, for bringing forward this work, which seems to command broad support across this House. That is testament to the importance of the report in analysing the phenomena of foreign interference and reflecting the need for a truly whole-of-society approach. The report explores many dimensions. It looks at interference via elite capture, national diasporas, universities and cultural events. It includes valuable and concrete recommendations on sanctions against foreign interference. In recent years, the Commission and the European External Action Service have stepped up their work to protect our democracies from foreign interference. This was a key strand of the European democracy action plan. For example, the Commission is working intensely with platforms and I am confident that the recently adopted Digital Services Act and the revised Code of Practice on disinformation will help limit the foreign information manipulation and interference online. The Commission is very conscious of the danger of information manipulation and interference in the electoral processes. This is why my proposal on the transparency and targeting of political advertising will introduce common high standards of transparency for political advertising services for all media. It will also limit and frame the use of personal data in targeting and amplifying political ads. The European External Action Service, in close cooperation with the Commission, has continued its work on foreign information, manipulation and interference. The progress made on a common analytical framework and methodology in conjunction with the work on the Information Sharing and Analysis Centre, will significantly increase our situational awareness and understanding of suspicious and malicious activities and cooperation in a whole-of-society approach. In conclusion, the European democracy action plan allowed us to undertake unprecedented legal and other actions on strengthened resilience of elections, to promote independence of the media and address disinformation. But you are right, this is not enough. Our citizens are asking us to do more. We heard this also in the Conference on the Future of Europe. As announced by President von der Leyen, the Commission is working on the defence of democracy package with a special focus on covert foreign interference through interest representation services. The package will include a communication, a directive on transparency of interest representation, a recommendation on elections in the EU, and a recommendation of promoting the engagement and effective participation of citizens and civil society organisations in public policymaking processes. Because, while we must protect ourselves from outside interference, we must also build democratic resilience from within by supporting Member States in engaging with citizens and civil society in their policymaking processes. The idea is for the EU to be equipped with a new generation of transparency tools to shed light on foreign influence while staying committed to freedom of expression and association. In particular, the proposed directive on transparency of interest representation on behalf of third countries would aim to ensure that companies, organisations or persons carrying out activities for third country governments that seek to influence public decision-making in the EU do so in a transparent manner.  This law will help us to better understand the financial flows to the EU from third countries that may want to undermine or destabilise our political processes. And it will help citizens to understand who is behind what they read or listen to, and also what is behind the policymaking environment. It would not ban or criminalise any such activities – the EU remains open and democratic. But we cannot be naive, and actors that receive this type of funding, irrespective of what they are, should be transparent about it. Let me also reassure you that the proposal will be very different from national foreign agents laws proposed elsewhere, such as the withdrawn NGO law in Georgia or the Russian foreign agent legislation. The approach is very different in terms of aim, scope, supervision and sanctions. Together with the President, we decided to take more time to consult broadly and gather more information in order to address also the concerns we heard in this House. We will reinforce the analysis underlying the proposal and upgrade it into a full impact assessment. This is important legislation and I want to make sure it will be balanced, meaningful and effective. Now, turning back to the next elections to your parliament, we would like to explain how we will continue our close cooperation with Member States. In its communication activities ahead of the European elections, the Commission will inform citizens about the EU and its policy actions so that they can make informed decisions and engage in the European democratic debate. We will also support Member States’ cooperation on election-related matters in the framework of the European cooperation network on elections and the European External Action Service managed Rapid Alert System on disinformation. Honourable Members, since the start of last year, the Commission has been working with Member States on a joint mechanism for electoral resilience to support the exchange of expertise in areas such as disinformation and cybersecurity. In October we will organise a high-level event on elections with Member States. Our objective is to exchange best practices on how to promote the exercise of electoral rights in the 2024 elections to the European Parliament. Thank you for your attention and I am sorry for being so long, but I had too much to say.