MEPs debate the new allegations of Russian interference in the European Parliament, including in the upcoming EU elections and the impact on the Union

Brussels

debate

plenary session

EU - Russia (T)

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

REINTKE, Terry (Greens/EFA, DE)

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Iratxe (S&D, ES)

fight against hate speech, populism, and fake news on social media (T)

KUBILIUS, Andrius (EPP, LT)

HAYER, Valérie (Renew, FR)

New allegations of Russian interference in the European Parliament: extracts from the debate

'SOUNDBITE (English), Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Values and Transparency, 'I find the recent revelations by the Czech secret service, in cooperation with other member state services, about the Russian influence Network and the operations of the Voice of Europe website very troubling, but they only confirm what I have been saying for a long time: our democracy cannot be taken for granted and Kremlin will continue using disinformation, malign interference, corruption and any other dirty tricks from the authoritarian playbook to divide Europe. This Commission has done an unprecedented amount of work to strengthen Europe's democratic resilience. I fully agree with what you wrote in your February resolution. We need a cross-cutting approach. Or what we called in the European Democracy Action Plan, a whole of society approach.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrius KUBILIUS (EPP, LT), If politician or political party suggests not to give Ukraine weapons and says that it will help to achieve peace, it is a party introduces foreign agents laws, if the government declares LGBT community as an extremist organization, if the government puts political opponents into prison, if the party gets financial support from Kremlin, which finances local oligarchs with a business ties to the Kremlin, those politicians, political parties or governments most probably are Kremlin agents. We should ask our European Parliament research service to start to produce a special regular Russia hybrid influence index based on those criteria, in order to help European citizens to understand for what kind of Kremlin hybrid agents they are going to vote.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARC&Iacute;A P&Eacute;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), We cannot allow this blow against the credibility of the European Parliament just before the elections. These elections are key for the future of our European project, to continue to support Ukraine in its fight for survival, faced with the tyranny of Putin's regime. Interfering in elections is one of the key objectives of the Russian secret service, as was shown in the elections with Trump in the USA and Brexit in the UK.

SOUNDBITE (French), Val&eacute;rie HAYER (Renew, FR), I am outraged, outraged to hear that members of this House and candidates at the European elections have been paid by the Russian government and its intermediaries, paid to propagate propaganda, paid to work against those who have elected them. That's why we, in Renew, are asking for names. We want names and figures. Who is paid, which parties, by which intermediaries? What were the aims and how much has been paid? This information is absolutely vital because this is an attack against our European vision of the world, against our Parliament, against our democratic mandate. We need this to be cleared. This is interference once again.

SOUNDBITE (English), Terry REINTKE (Greens/EFA, DE), As we face the revelations of influence and interference, let us be clear: there is no place in this Parliament and no place in Europe for those who would destabilize our Union, undermine our democracies, or erode our freedoms for personal gain, our foreign agendas. To protect Europe, we must take a firm stance against this form of corruption and betrayal that will damage the reputation of our Parliament. Our commitment must be to the people of Europe, defending our values, our democracy, our freedom against those who would trade them for their own ends. This is not only what the Greens should fight for, but all Democrats who hold the values of this union dear.