Foreign interference committee starts its work, Raphaël Glucksmann presiding
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Foreign interference committee starts its work, Raphaël Glucksmann presiding

The Committee on Foreign Interference elected Raphaël Glucksmann as its chairman at its constitutive session on Wednesday.

Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, FR)

“In recent years, European democracies have been the target of coordinated attacks from the outside, aiming at weakening our institutions and subverting our public debate. We simply do not have the right to be naïve anymore. In the next 12 months, we’ll work together to precisely identify the threat and will propose efficient responses and new legislation to counter it“, said the Chair upon his election by acclamation. See his press statement here.

The first regular meeting of the special committee is on Thursday, 24 September at 13:45. Live streaming of tomorrow’s meeting will be available here.

Protecting democracy

The Committee on Foreign Interference in All Democratic Processes in the EU, Including Disinformation (INGE) was set up at a June plenary session with a mandate to deal with the following:

  • analysing investigations showing that crucial electoral rules have been breached in circumvented especially in the field of third country campaign financing;
  • examining national legislation on political funding;
  • suggesting rules to force social media companies to clearly label posts aimed to undermine democratic processes and spread hate-speech;
  • exploring how responsibility for countering foreign interference in the democratic processes can be extended to the private sector, including to social media and tech companies;
  • suggesting coordinated action on EU-level against hybrid threats targeting, among others, lawmakers, journalists and political parties;
  • countering information campaigns by malign third countries aimed at fostering discord in the EU; and
  • examining security breaches inside the EU institutions.

The 33-member committee will summarize its findings in a report to be adopted by the end of its one-year mandate.

Vice-chair

The committee also elected, by acclamation, its first vice-chair, Javier Zarzalejos (EPP, ES). Another three vice-chairs will be elected at a later occasion.