Foreign Interference Committee of the EP Starts Its Work

The European Parliament has a new committee – on Foreign Interference in all democratic processes in the EU, including disinformation. It started its work on Wednesday 23 September and elected as its chairman Raphaël Glucksmann, French MEP from Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.

According to a press release from the European Parliament, the special committee on foreign interference is, among others, tasked with thoroughly analysing the investigations that showed that crucial electoral rules were breached or circumvented. It will have to identify possible areas that would require legislative and non-legislative actions  vis-à-vis social media platforms, to suggest coordinated actions at EU level for tackling hybrid threats, and to counter information campaigns and strategic communication of malign third countries that harm the EU.

“The creation of a special committee is a signal, a very clear signal sent to all foreign powers trying to interfere in the European democratic process. The era of European naivety has come to an end. And we need now to access the level of threat, whether it will be disinformation campaign, hybrid attacks funded by a political party or political campaign. And then once we will establish this general diagnosis, we need to propose tools to act and protect our democracies,”  stated Glucksmann at a press point after his election.  

You can watch his statement here.

The first regular meeting of the committee will take place on Thursday 24 September. The committee has 33 members, including pro-Ukrainian MEP’s Sandra Kalniete (Latvia, EPP Group), Viola Von Cramon-Taubadel (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance) and Petras Auštrevičius (Lithuania, Renew Europe Group).

The committee will summarise its findings in a report to be adopted by the end of its one-year mandate.