During the plenary session in the European Parliament in Brussels (17-19 June 2020), debate on Tackling Covid-19 disinformation and the impact on freedom of expression. Opening statements by Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency; Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of a stronger Europe in the World and Vĕra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Values and Transparency. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

debate

plenary session

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

freedom of press and media (T)

fight against hate speech, populism, and fake news on social media (T)

BORRELL FONTELLES, Josep (PSE, ES, EC)

BRNJAC, Nikolina (EPP, HR)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

social life (T)

Tackling Covid-19 disinformation and the impact on freedom of expression: Opening statements by Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative and VP of the EC and Vĕra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President of the EC

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicola BEER, EP Vice-President, Well, colleagues, before we start with the next debate. So when we're to open the first round of votes, so the vote of will be 11.45. The same voting procedure will apply as yesterday. All of the votes it will be by name and the results of the voting can be found in the document onlin that is going to be published in there

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicola BEER, EP Vice-President, Eplanations of vote may be submitted in writing by way of exception. Only statements on the vote can have 400 words no more. The first round of voting is now declared open. You have until 11 45 to vote.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicola BEER, EP Vice-President, The results of these votes will then be made known at 14 40, so we can now proceed. Colleagues with the debates. The next item on the agenda is the council statement. And the commission statement on tackling Covid 19 disinformation and the impact on freedom of expression.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicola BEER, EP Vice-President, I would briefly point out to you that this debate will not be spontaneous. Speakers are no blue cards will be accepted. And as usual, we start with the Council representative. Mrs Brnjac, you have the floor. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Thank you, President. Honourable members, the exceptional health crisis in the world is still facing has been aggravated by unprecedented epidemic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Our Citizens have been flooded by often false or inaccurate information, which not only creates confusion, but it is also put the health and lives at risk to address this risks.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, The council has strongly emphasized the need to intensify joint efforts in the fight against disinformation to a close cooperation between EU institutions, member states and social platforms. There is a consensus Council about the need to more effective methods to address this information without hindering the protection of fundamental rights.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Indeed, our strong and coordinated action against this information must be in line with our democratic values, including freedom of expression and free and plural media.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, All institutions, member states and civil society are called to ask act against the plague of the epidemic. Much has been done in due institutions in cooperation with member states. The External Action Service, [...] Task Force and the rapid alert system, which set up in the run up to the European election last year, drag this information.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, We support and welcome these efforts. The comprehensive approach at all levels is needed to address the challenges of disinformation. This must include monitoring and analysis of disinformation and manual interface.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Enforcement of European data protection rules. Efforts to enhance pluralistic media, professional journalism and media literacy as well as awareness among citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, EU institutions and member states should continue working with social media platforms to achieve higher standards of responsibility, transparency and accountability on addressing this information.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, The whole of society approach is also stressed by the recent joint communication tackling Covid 19 disinformation. Getting the facts right, which takes stock of the measures taken in response to disinformation around the Coronavirus pandemic and proposes further action.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, The presidency takes Covid 19 information very seriously and we have taken steps to ensure close cooperation with member states' authorities and EU institutions, bodies and agencies, and with international organisations such W.H.O.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, As early as 28 January, we have activated the European Union's integrated political crisis response arrangements regarding Covid 19 pandemic, bringing together relevant experts from the member states and the EU institutions in the fields of health, consular affairs and civil protection.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, In this framework. This information has been one of the topics we addressed. We believe that the disinformation campaigns could also be highly disruptive in this phase of easing restrictive measures and of searching for a vaccine vaccine and a cure.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, We have also addressed the issue in other formats, such as our horizontal working party for enhancing resilience and countering hybrid threats in the Political and Security Committee and at the EU. US Justice and Home Affairs Minister videoconference.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Being cautions that this information is here to stay and we need to all work together to maintain our vigilance, strengthen our toolbox and resilience, and continue our efforts to address this issue internally and beyond our you borders.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Covid related disnformation is aggravating existing divisions in the eastern and southern neighbourhood and in the western Balkans.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, At the Zagreb the Western Balkans Summit on 6th of me, the leaders of the EU and Western Balkans Partners agreed to reinforce the cooperation on addressing this information and other hybrid activities.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, As I said at the beginning, when fighting against this information, we must not forget the balance between the right of citizens to be properly informed and safeguarding the freedom of speech and media.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, In the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, unprecedented circumstances led many member states to adopt far reaching measures which were key to act rapidly and effectively to protect the health of the citizens.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, Many of these measures had a significant impact on fundamental rights, democracy and rule of law. It is therefore essential to make sure that they remain proportionate to the objective, limited in time and subject to the regular scrutiny

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, The emergency measures taken to tackle the pandemic must not be used as a pretext to censor news and informal information coverage or violate fundamental rights.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nikolina BRNJAC, Croatian Presidency, It is critical that the governments support the work of independent media, which are crucial allies in the fight against Covid 19. The democratic debate, media freedom and the role of civil society is a special attention upholding these values is a priority for the hunt for the Council. Thank you very much.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicola BEER, EP Vice-President, Thank you, madam. It is our honour to have her two vice-presidents with herself from the Commission for the debate. The High Representative, Mr Borrell, as well as Ms Jourova. Perhaps Mr The High Representative can start. Mr. Borrell.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World,Thank you, Madam President. Honourable Members. That's really evident that the pandemic , the virus pandemic has been accompanied by "infodamic", a pandemic of information.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, We have a witness at a wave of false or misleading information, an exponential increase in targeted influence operations by foreign actors. We have seen again that this information can do real damage in the case of a pandemic which affects the health of the people.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, It is still more dangerous. We have seen this information saying that drink and bleach can cure their Coronavirus.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, Not making any specific reference to anyone. But this has been said. Now drink bleach and you will be safe or that washing hands doesn't help.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, It can also spark crime. Take, for example, the vandalisme against 5G infrastructures in some member states, mainly in Netherlands.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, In March 2020, the European leaders call on the commission and High Representative through the External Action Service to take actions. Last week we follow up with the joint communication on disinformation related to the pandemic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, Together with my colleague and friend and Vice-President in charge of that values, I would also complement this communication. This communication summarises what the European Union has done to tackle this information into crisis and how to step up actions that information no border.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, Democracies and the West as such have been the target of this information, which underlines the importance of international cooperation. So let me turn first to the external dimension.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, The epidemic has clearly been exploited, very footing state and non-state actors. This information from Russia actors have spread conspiracy theories and orchestrated disinformation campaign targeting the EU/as a member states and neighbours by alleging lack of solidarity and internal crises within European Union and showing confusion.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, China has also participated in that. Russian sources are all news, but Chna has been much more active. China sources has been promoting disimage, presenting their as the better system, the best equipped to tackle the pandemics and blaming democracy for handling dividers.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, While one can imagine that doing propaganda on self-praise, seeing of the IT self is something that everybody does

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, But I think that our borders and one thing is to explain that you believed to be the best and this thing is to deflect blame on the handle of the virus by others.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, At the same time, there is a clear risk of governments using the pandemic as an excuse to limit fundamental rights and freedom of expression. Some of the members refer to that on their previous debate,.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, And I think the European Union needs to take a stand against it. What what has been done to address these worrying trends?

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, We have been working to promote the strategic communication and public diplomacy in our neighbourhood, especially in the Western Balkans. [..] held this as a step up its efforts to address for an influence operations, publishing regular reports, analyzing the trends in disinformation and sharing findings with member states our international partners, civil society and the media people work in an external action service, are doing an extraordinary and difficult work on this field.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, We have made good use of these drones we have at hand to tackle disinformation of Iran in the current crisis. We mobilised the rapid system which connects all relevant EU institutions and all EU member states.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, This has been proving a value to be a valuable network, and since the outbreak of the pandemic, a dedicated space has been set up to exchange information on disinformation. Information on this information and related to the virus,

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, We have further increased work cooperation with our international partners. May 27 and its rapid response mechanism. We also are happy working with valuable partners as the United Nations and their work organization.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, Looking ahead, we will step up our actions by enhancing concrete operation on strategic communication and public diplomacy, increasing the sharing of best practice and fighting disinformation and activating more quicker rapid on our system.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, Intensifying the joint work with relevant partners from civil society and private sector. Stepping up monitoring of violations of press freedom and support. Advocacy for a safer media and betterment on this.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, We now have a specific program under the instrument contributing to stability and peace to support regional governments in tackling the crisis and to debunk information that can further fuel tensions in conflict areas

SOUNDBITE (Original), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, It could be more going into the day to the thing is time to leave it to now or their vice president. Transparency and values Mrs Jourova better than I should over to continue the important work, the social media platform and other aspects of this joint communication

SOUNDBITE (Original), Nicola BEER, EP Vice-President, Thank you very much. Mr. President, we're looking forward to hearing now from Vice President Jourova[4.8s]

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Honorable members, we have just heard from Josep Borrell, basic parameters and the information about what we call infodamic, which is going on parallel as the pandemic we go through.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, And this is why we decided to prepared the communication and adopt the communication, which has the title getting the facts right.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, we already had the code of practice and we have the action plan. And second purpose was to come as a to do list for all involved, especially the platforms to step up their work and the communication be comprehensively address rethinks the sources of disinformation, its journalists and amplifiers, and also the targets.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, It was necessary because we needed to inform about what, where or what have been the steps taken up to now against disinformation? Because because in Covid context, we didn't start from scratch fighting against disinformation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Josep had not talked about the foreign source of disinformation, and I am glad about this because I believe that geo-political EU can only materialize if we are assertive,

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, But we also have to put our own house in order. We need to beef up our strategic communication. We have to get our story out about Europe and EU support during the Coronavirus crisis and it is high time we step up on this and do not allow others to occupy the space.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Now the channels of communication, of communication and disinformation, especially the online platforms. I welcome the measures taken by them in this crisis. Their strong commitment is heavily needed.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, I believe that the fact that we worked with the platforms and we designed with them the code of practice on this information helped to roll out new policies quicker.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, We agreed with the platforms that they would promote links to World Health Organization and health authorities and remove ads that offer fake medicine or inflate prices for normal products or the very dangerous advice which we already heard from Josep.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, These actions brought results. For example, Google blocked or removed globally over 80 million Coronavirus related ads. But there is room for improvement and I will go.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, It was just the first step. We need to ensure transparency and accountability. Citizens need to know how information is reaching them and where it comes from.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Our joint communication calls on the platforms to step up their efforts and to report monthly on their policies and actions to address Covid 19 related this disinformation, not to report to the commission to report to the public so that the people can read what's happening online and the targets.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Well, it's about us that it's about the citizens of Europe. Lying is neither new nor that scary in itself. What scares me is that we believe in those lies too easily. This is why we need to become more resilient and critical as a society.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, We need to support free and independent media. The fact checkers and researchers and we have to step up our education. We will have that digital education action plan soon adopted by the commission.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, There will be a very strong chapter on how to be and become more resilient and increase our critical thinking. Education We will support the fact checking and research activities through the recently established European Digital Media Observatory.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, In this context, later this month we will launch a call for 9 million euros for the research hubs in different member states.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Also, we have to speak in this context about the freedom of speech, which remains our basic principle loss, which define criminal penalties for spreading disinformation in [...] and with disproportionate sanctions can damage accountability mechanisms which are just as important as ever.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, It can make the work of journalists more difficult and cause self-censorship and damage freedom of expression. And this is not the European way. It is bad for democracies and it is self-defeating.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, Our best defence against disinformation are free and pollute our media informed and active citizens and resilient democratic institutions in which they can trust. I really want to insist on this because I believe this is a distinctive part of our policies.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, I do not want to create any Ministry of Truth. You know, I used to live in a system before 1989 with only one official truth no pluralism of media opinion, or even thought.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, A competitive market of ideas enabled by free speech is essential in democracy's just as in traditional competition policy, where consumers benefit from fair competition and level playing field citizens benefit from the fair competition of free speech.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, To conclude, the communication is the first building block on this new commission of this new commission. In the response disinformation. We are working on the Digital Services Act and this and our Europe European Democracy Action Plan, where we will address illegal content and harmful content like disinformation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Vĕra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Values and Transparency, And in this context, I really appreciate that we can work on this together. West Side, the committee which you established in the parliament, because I believe that come on to work and bring good fruit. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Madam Vice President. We'll now hear from the members, first of all, Mr. Bilchiko on behalf of the European People's Party group.