The European Comission (EC) warned this Wednesday that there is a particularly “intense” risk of foreign interference ahead of the European Parliament elections to be held from June 6 to 9.
“The risk of interference is especially intense on the eve of the European elections,” emphasizes the seventh progress report on the implementation of the strategy of the European Union on security for 2020-2025, presented today by the Community Executive.
This community initiative aimed to “break traditional silos in security,” stressed today the vice president of the EC and person in charge of the Promotion of the European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, in a press conference.
The Greek politician added that this “focus under one roof has led to a new security ecosystem that is bearing fruit,” at a time when two wars are taking place, in Ukraine and in Loopin the European neighborhood, as well as phenomena such as the instrumentalization of migrants, hybrid attacks or cyberattacks.
The report published today also pays attention to the situation on the eve of the European elections, and points out that “attempts at foreign interference have been revealed by accusations of corruption through payments from third countries to EU politicians.”
He points out that, to speed up the exchange of information ahead of the elections, the Council of the Union activated in April an integrated response mechanism to political crises.
Community sources today highlighted the different methods that are combined in information manipulation operations, from recording conversations or leaks to bribery or other forms of corruption.
They warn that there have already been external interferences in elections organized in recent years, such as those of USA in 2016 or those of France in 2017, but they make it clear that, although the trend is increasing, they do not expect a massive manipulation campaign in these elections.
They specify that the parameters with which they work indicate that the elections to the European Parliament will be safe and legitimate, despite the fact that the European authorities continue working to protect them from the risk of manipulated information.
As threats, the EU has mainly identified attempts to denigrate the electoral process or confuse voters about the voting process, the sources said.
Likewise, the EU has detected an increase in both the quantity and quality of these disinformation campaigns, with increasingly sophisticated tactics and more powerful tools, from artificial intelligence to cloned web pages of consolidated media outlets.
The sources explained that disinformers take advantage of national discontent to construct manipulated stories that, however, are never designed from a completely false, artificial or invented basis.
Most of the time they use an existing debate or conflict and come into play by reinforcing a specific voice, sometimes opposite to the debate in question in order to increase tensions.
To combat these activities, the EU has adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to prevent illegal and harmful online activities and the spread of disinformation.
The report presented today also refers to the reinforcement of critical and digital infrastructures; the fight against terrorism and radicalization; the fight against drugs and organized crime, which “is becoming a threat to Europe”, in the words of Schinas, and judicial and police cooperation with international partners and EU agencies.
The text indicates that the Russian Ukraine war has led to an increase in cyberattacks and has exposed the “potential vulnerability” of some critical EU infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the situation in the Middle East and the “unprecedented scale of violence in the region” have intensified the challenges posed by maintaining the EU’s internal security, “with an increased risk of terrorist attacks.”
In any case, Schinas stressed that the EU is now “stronger and better equipped than ever to confront security threats.”
Source: Gestion
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