European countries urge to protect elections in Europe from foreign interference

BRUSSELS: France, Germany and 10 other European Union countries want the European Commission to use its powers under the Digital Services Act to protect the integrity of European elections from foreign interference, a letter signed by the 12 countries showed.

In the letter, European affairs ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Spain asked the commission to deliver on promises to create a dedicated EU body to counter foreign information manipulation and interference.

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“The escalating threats of foreign interference and disruptive interventions in public debates during key electoral events represent a direct challenge to our stability and sovereignty,” the letter, seen by Reuters, said.

“Recent incidents demand urgent and united action to defend forthcoming elections in the EU,” it said.

EU diplomats said the letter was referring to interference mainly by Russia and China, but also other cases.

Germany faces snap elections on February 23 and has set up a task force to head off any foreign state attempts to influence the vote after warning of Russian-sponsored espionage and sabotage.

Last week Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, appeared at Germany’s far-right AfD election campaign event to support the party for the second time in as many weeks.

In December, the commission opened an investigation against social media firm TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, over its suspected failure to limit election interference in the Romanian presidential vote in November.

Government officials in Poland, which has presidential elections in May, have warned Russia was recruiting Poles to influence the election.

“We urge the Commission to lead by fully leveraging the powers granted under the Digital Services Act (DSA),” the letter said.

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Under the DSA, large internet platforms like X, Facebook, TikTok and others must moderate and remove harmful content like hate speech, racism or xenophobia. If they do not, the commission can impose fines of up to 6 per cent of their worldwide annual turnover.