MEPs call for a coordinated strategy against foreign interference and information manipulation to protect the European elections and increase the EU’s resilience and discuss the report by the Special Committee on foreign interference. The report includes recommendations for a coordinated EU strategy and addresses issues such as interference on online platforms, protection of critical infrastructure and strategic sectors. Extracts from the debate, extracts from the vote. In a statement, Raphaël GLUCKSMANN (S&D, FR), Chair of INGE2 Special Committee, explains how the Special Committee worked on this new report, what should be the concrete measures to fight against foreign interference and the urgency of applying the new Democracy Defense package before the European Elections in 2024.

Brussels

debate

plenary session

vote

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

joint debate

KALNIETE, Sandra (EPP, LV)

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

GLUCKSMANN, Raphaël (S&D, FR)

Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the EU, including Disinformation II

Foreign interference in democratic processes, election integrity and resilience build-up towards European elections 2024: extracts from the debate, from the vote and statement by Raphaël GLUCKSMANN (S&D, FR), Chair of INGE2 Special Committee

SOUNDBITE (English), Rapha&#235;l GLUCKSMANN (S&amp;D, FR), Chair of ING2 Special committee, If you want concrete measures, you have to go to various topics. So the first thing is we never interfere, needs to be sanctioned. And until now, it was not the case, you know. So first thing is you have foreign regime hostile regimes, starting with Russia, but also China or Qatar or other countries that think they can interfere in their own democratic life, then they need to be sanctioned. What we need to do is build the resilience of our society. And on that, we had a very successful mission in Taiwan, and I think we should get inspiration for what they went from Taiwanese democracy, which is suffering from very, very high level of hybrid warfare from the Chinese regime. And then what did they do? They decided to bring the society together thinktanks, media, citizens and governments, and have a would of society approach and include citizens in the fight against disinformation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sandra KALNIETE (EPP, LV), Rapporteur, We must face the fact that today's legislation concerning and consequences of digital revolution already addresses the problems of yesterday. This is not only the EU challenge, it is a global problem to be addressed together with like minded partners. Moreover, I am convinced that this House in the next legislation will need a dedicated cross-sectoral committee dealing with foreign interference and information manipulation issues, including new technological challenges.

SOUNDBITE (French), Rapha&#235;l GLUCKSMANN (S&amp;D, FR), Chair of ING2 Special committee, There are manipulation, information manipulation campaigns, combating democracy on a massive scale. There are private individuals. There's Ginger, the Israeli company. There's dictatorships attacking our democracy, China and Russia. This is affecting the choices that the electorate faces, exploiting the vulnerabilities of our open societies and encouraging hate speech in our societies. Anything which polarises our debate brings in an atmosphere of confusion and civil war on our networks and anything which undermines confidence in our institutions is playing into the hands.

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#283;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, The Commission is working on the Defence of Democracy package with special focus on covert foreign interference, interests, representation services. The package will include a communication, a directive on transparency of interests, representation and recommend ation 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.

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#283;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Since the start of last year, the Commission has been working with Member States on a joint mechanism on election 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 2024 elections to the European Parliament.

SOUNDBITE (English), Rapha&#235;l GLUCKSMANN (S&amp;D, FR), Chair of ING2 Special committee, The first report was a wake up call. The idea was that, our leaders, our governments were way too naive when it came to find their ground. So the wake up call has been successful because things have started to change that we needed to follow up. You know, it's not a topic that we can solve in one day, so it's important for the parliament to follow up, to look at what was done, what was not done, ask why it was not done, and insist that, well, now it should be done. So it's not a topic that we will just forget about after one report. It's important to see and to show that we are focussed on this topic.

SOUNDBITE (English), Rapha&#235;l GLUCKSMANN (S&amp;D, FR), Chair of ING2 Special Committee, We are in a continent that is at war, and so we need to have additional protection for our campaign and for the integrity of the process, and that we count on the Commission to come up with a very robust defence of democracy package. But now we know that it will be postponed and we start to be worried. I mean, we need to be ready on time. And that's why also these reports, these debates are important because the Parliament needs to express the fact that it's not a topic you can postpone. Actually, it's now that decisions have to be taken if we want them to be enforced during the campaign and protect the elections.

Results of the vote: 483 + / 071 - / O075