The Parliament calls for its coordinated strategy EU to better deal with external interference and manipulation of information and to shield the 2024 European elections.

External interference, disinformation and attacks on democracy are practices which are likely to intensify and evolve ahead of the European Parliament elections to be held in June 2024, MEPs warn. This finding is included in a report by the Special Committee on external interference in all democratic processes in the EU, including disinformation, which was approved by the plenary of the Parliament with 469 votes in favor, 71 against and 75 abstentions.

The report includes the European Parliament’s recommendations regarding external interference in online platforms, protection of critical infrastructure and strategic sectors, interference in electoral processes, covert financing of political activities by foreign actors and resilience against cyber-attacks. The focus of the report is particularly on interventions by Russia and China in EU countries and candidate countries, including the Western Balkan countries, as well as countries in the Global South.

Interference in electoral processes

Parliament condemns in its report the dangerous phenomenon of paid disinformation. This phenomenon concerns companies hired by governmental and non-governmental actors, through the dark web for example, with the aim of organizing disinformation campaigns to influence electoral processes.

In order to eliminate prohibited financial transactions between third countries and members of the EU political system, the MEPs call on the one hand the European Commission to facilitate the tracing of donations, on the other hand the Member States to take urgent measures to deal with the question of donations from third countries to national political parties.

Critical infrastructure

MEPs highlight in this report the risks of financial dependency, espionage and sabotage, which arise when foreign companies acquire interests in vital EU infrastructure. Chinese shipping companies have already acquired a significant or even a majority stake in more than 20 European ports, they point out. In addition, MEPs recommend that TikTok be banned at all levels of national governments and EU institutions, while calling on the Council and the European Commission to block the use of equipment and software by manufacturers from high-risk countries, especially China and Russia, such as ByteDance, Huawei, ZTE, Kaspersky, NtechLab or Nuctech.

EU coordinated strategy

The Parliament calls on the EU to adopt a coordinated strategy, which will include the establishment of new initiatives as well as improving the implementation of existing provisions. It also calls for ensuring that the EU has the necessary funding to tackle disinformation and defend democratic processes. MEPs are asking the European Commission to present an effective package of measures to defend democracy, as well as new legislative proposals to tackle hybrid threats in the EU, taking into account the proposals of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Finally, they propose to set up a permanent body in the European Parliament, responsible for monitoring and combating external interventions.

With this report, Parliament responds to citizens’ expectations to strengthen the fight against foreign interference and disinformation, online threats and propaganda in an objective and data-driven manner, as expressed in motions 23(5), 27, 28(2), 33(4), 37(4) and 46(2) of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Rapporteur Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvia) said: “Foreign interference in democratic processes is a growing threat to the security of Member States and the EU, especially in light of rapid technological development and Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine. We must act immediately and implement our recommendations quickly. Significant and far-reaching investments in the resilience of our democracy are needed, building on the experience of our partners such as Ukraine and Taiwan.”

The report was drawn up as a follow-up to the resolution on external interventions adopted in March 2022. In preparing the new report, MEPs met with national, European and international policy makers, the intelligence services of EU member states, as well as with the NATO StratCom Task Force in Riga, the Hybrid Council of Europe Task Force in Helsinki, the Australian Government and the UN authorities and counterparts in New York, as well as their Ukrainian counterparts and the authorities in Kiev.