During the EP plenary session (15-18 January 2018) in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on the influence of Russian propaganda on EU countries and its alleged attempts to influence elections in some EU countries through misinformation. Statements by Sandra KALNIETE (EPP, LV), Monika PANAYOTOVA, Behalf of the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency, Julian KING, Member of the EC in charge of the Security Union, Esteban GONZÁLEZ PONS (EPP, ES), Liisa JAAKONSAARI (S&D, FI), Roberts ZĪLE (ECR, LV) and Johannes Cornelis van BAALEN (ALDE, NL).

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

EU - Russia (T)

KING, Julian (UK, EC)

GONZÁLEZ PONS, Esteban (EPP, ES)

KALNIETE, Sandra (EPP, LV)

VAN BAALEN, Johannes Cornelis (ALDE, NL)

ZĪLE, Roberts (ECR, LV)

JAAKONSAARI, Liisa (S&D, FI)

propaganda against EU (T)

PANAYOTOVA, Monika (BG)

Russia - the influence of propaganda on EU countries: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (English), Sandra KALNIETE (EPP, LV), The Commission and the EAS have not heard the alarm bells that in this house and in the European capitals have been ringing since the war against Ukraine. I invite the vice president Mogherini and other EU leaders to balance their meetings with Lavrov and Putin with due attention to Kremlin&rsquo;s attempts to weaken and undermine our democracies and alliances.

SOUNDBITE (English), Monika PANAYOTOVA, Behalf of the Bulgarian EU Council Presidency, We must, for instance, not forget the important role of the education and the need to develop democratic resilience, media literacy, tolerance and critical thinking. These efforts have become key to fighting propaganda and manipulation through fake news.

SOUNDBITE (English), Julian KING, Member of the EC in charge of the Security Union, Russian authorities are not exactly shy about the goals of this disinformation campaign, this disinformation activity. In Russia&rsquo;s official military doctrine as well as statements by top Russian generals, they describe the use of false data and destabilising propaganda as legitimate tools and information as another type of armed force. While EU member states are obviously in the front line for such Russian disinformation, the Commission&rsquo;s main role is to try and head off any fragmentation that might arise from different member states&rsquo; responses to such activities. That&rsquo;s why we placed great emphasis on the role of the East Stratcom taskforce.

SOUNDBITE (English), Julian KING, Member of the EC in charge of the Security Union, We strongly support measures to build our cyber resilience and our cyber deterrence.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Esteban GONZ&#193;LEZ PONS (EPP, ES), The Kremlin has &euro;1 billion per year of State funds, TV networks in 33 languages and 100 countries, it has fake accounts all around the world to spread fake news around the world including in the EU. The EU only has &euro;1 million in its budget and a task force consisting of 17 individuals, 17 individuals facing 1 billion Euros of public money, so we are rather vulnerable.

SOUNDBITE (English), Liisa JAAKONSAARI (S&amp;D, FI), Media literacy is particularly important. The EU alone can&rsquo;t do everything, the member states must be on board. The Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan L&ouml;fven, said last week at the security conference that Sweden will set up a psychological defence unit and when the EU is strengthening its own defence, we also should put psychological defence on our agenda that&rsquo;s the key word here.

SOUNDBITE (Latvian), Roberts Z&#298;LE (ECR, LV),  I think it&rsquo;s extremely important to understand that our medicine against this propaganda has to be non-traditional otherwise we will lose this battle.

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Johannes Cornelis van BAALEN (ALDE, NL), It must be transparent also on platforms where those videos come from. It&rsquo;s not to have a negative impact on news, there should be freedom of news but it should be transparent where it comes from. You have also to see who sponsors it because if you read on Internet, you should know if this is supported by the state or by a private agency, so there must be transparency, that is the most important thing concerning this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Johannes Cornelis van BAALEN (ALDE, NL), Let us try to be active and not selective, so it&rsquo;s not only Russia, yeah it is Russia but it is also China and others. Thank you very much.