Monday

2nd Oct 2023

EU to step up effort against Russian and Islamist propaganda

  • An Iraqi soldier in front of an Islamic State flag near Mosul. The EU wants to counter IS narrative. (Photo: Reuters/Alaa Al-Marjani)

The EU must step up efforts to counter Russian disinformation in Europe, MEPs have said in alarming tones.

"We are really in a state of war with Russia, we I mean EU citizens,” Jaromir Stetina, a Czech centre-right MEP said on Tuesday (31 January).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"There are no bombs, tanks, missiles, but we are in a war, because this is a hybrid war, and disinformation is a part of this hybrid warfare," he said.

"This is a war that the Russian federation declared on us, the goal is to destroy the European Union, and we have to defend it," he added.

Stetina, who spoke at a European Parliament hearing that he helped to organise, said East StratCom, a counter-propaganda unit in the EU foreign service, needed better resources.

The task-force, set up in September 2015, employs 11 people, most of whose contracts expire in August, and has no budget of its own.

Its mandate is to debunk fake Russian news, better communicate EU policy, and support independent media in eastern European and former Soviet countries.

Jakub Kalensky, a member of the unit said Russia had “an orchestrated campaign.”

He said it was “targeting millions of people in the EU and the euro-atlantic space on a daily basis using the method of repeating a lie a hundred times until it becomes truth.”

“The aim of this disinformation campaign is to weaken, to divide, to destabilise the West: either along existing divides or by creating new ones," he said.

Kalensky said his team monitor around 35 countries, so it would be useful to have one staff member per country.

"It it is also naive to expect that a team in Brussels will quickly spot a story ... The more local the team, the faster the reaction, if there would be an anti-propaganda centre in every EU country, it would be much more effective probably," he said.

He declined to say how much money the task force would need to do an adequate job, but he cited a US figure that Russia spends $1.4 billion a year on propaganda abroad.

Polish centre-right MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski said that lies spread by pro-Kremlin outlets were circulating on the European political scene.

"The problem is that lies are not only present in mainstream media, but in our political life," he said.

"Those lies win elections, those lies govern, and I hear them from the mouth of between 100-140 members of this house, who use the Kremlin’s narrative here," he said.

"We are under threat, democracy is losing, it is not at risk of losing, it is losing,” he said.

Saryusz-Wolski said the EU should transform East StratCom into an agency, provide proper funding, and create counter-propaganda centres in every member state.

He said there was greater political will for this than in the past, but that it might take a shock to cause change.

"We will need some lost elections to have sobering effects," he said.

The Netherlands, France, and Germany are holding elections this year.

Far-right, anti-EU, and pro-Russian parties are becoming increasingly popular in all three of them and pro-Russian websites have already started attacking German chancellor Angela Merkel.

The EU parliament event came amid questions on Russian influence in the US presidential elections last year.

Playing with sentiments

Experts on Russian propaganda said Kremlin outlets give a one-sided presentation of the story that aimed to trigger emotions.

"One important part [of the disinformation] is not to spread false facts, but opinions, and controversial issues to be presented in a stereotypical, one sided way," Boris Navasardian from the Eastern Parnership Civil Society Forum said.

He said it was tailored to appeal to local taste.

On Brexit, Georgians saw stories on how Ukraine and Georgia would only become EU members when everybody else had left.

Moldovans were told that the EU did not want their exports.

Miriam Lexmann of the US-based NGO the International Republican Institute, said Russia media tried to create phobias.

"Accurate fact and playing with sentiments is more dangerous than only providing fake news," she said.

Kalensky said that another Russian tactic was to spread as many contradictory versions of the same story as possible to divert attention from facts and to sow mistrust in normal media.

"The aim is to bury the fact under the contradictions, so that a regular reader ends up convinced he, she will never know where is the truth," he said, citing Russia’s handling of the MH17 flight disaster as an example.

Prague attacked

Meanwhile, the Czech foreign minister said Tuesday that his minitsry had been hacked by a foreign nation.

Lubomir Zaoralek said no classified information was stolen as hackers got into the email system, but not into more sensitive files.

"The data leak was considerable. The attack was very sophisticated," Zaoralek was quoted as saying by AFP.

"It must have been carried out from the outside, by another country. The way it was done bears a very strong resemblance to the attacks on the US Democratic Party's internet system," said the foreign minister.

Opinion

Finally, the victims of Utøya got a memorial

A legal battle between locals on the one hand and the state and the labour youth organisation on the other side postponed the inception of the memorial in remembrance of the victims of Anders Behring Breivik.

Opinion

Punish Belarus too for aiding Putin's Ukraine war

While Belarus has not sent its own troops to fight Russia's war in Ukraine, the Minsk dictatorship has been heavily involved. As a result, Belarus must be punished for its involvement — what can the world do to sanction Belarus?

Latest News

  1. EU women promised new dawn under anti-violence pact
  2. Three steps EU can take to halt Azerbaijan's mafia-style bullying
  3. Punish Belarus too for aiding Putin's Ukraine war
  4. Added-value for Russia diamond ban, as G7 and EU prepare sanctions
  5. EU states to agree on asylum crisis bill, say EU officials
  6. Poland's culture of fear after three years of abortion 'ban'
  7. Time for a reset: EU regional funding needs overhauling
  8. Germany tightens police checks on Czech and Polish border

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  2. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators, industry & healthcare experts at the 24th IMDRF session, September 25-26, Berlin. Register by 20 Sept to join in person or online.
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. International Medical Devices Regulators Forum (IMDRF)Join regulators & industry experts at the 24th IMDRF session- Berlin September 25-26. Register early for discounted hotel rates
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations
  2. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  3. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  4. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us