Security services across the European Union will be encouraged to improve the sharing of information to help track evidence of attempted political interference by Russia, under a new plan proposed by EU commissioner Michael McGrath.
Aggressive efforts by Moscow to tip elections in Romania and Moldova in favour of anti-EU forces have given extra momentum to moves by Brussels officials to curb foreign meddling in European elections.
European commissioner for justice Michael McGrath said the Kremlin’s attempts to interfere in elections were becoming “much more sophisticated and co-ordinated and much better resourced”.
The level of Russian pressure to undermine recent elections in Moldova had been “unprecedented,” he said.
RM Block
Despite the interference, Moldovan president Maia Sandu’s pro-EU party defeated Russian-leaning opponents in a win that was viewed as preventing the eastern state from sliding into Moscow’s orbit.
EU officials likely have an eye on the 2027 presidential election in France, where a victory for Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally would upend European politics and the balance of power in Brussels.
“You will never fully know the extent of the interference until something goes wrong ... That is the risk that I think we face in every election now within the European Union,” Mr McGrath said.
A dedicated team will be established by the European Commission to improve information sharing and co-ordinate efforts to tackle disinformation and election interference, in EU states and candidate countries hopeful of joining the bloc.
As part of the new plan, dubbed the EU’s “democracy shield”, the commission is expected to push tech giants to do more to prevent AI-generated images and deep fake videos from being used to spread false narratives and mislead voters. It is understood that this may include finding ways for online platforms to detect and flag that an image has been created using artificial intelligence.
EU officials plan to firm up contingency measures for how to quickly respond in the event of an orchestrated attempt to flood social media with disinformation during an election.
Fresh guidance will be provided to national media regulators about how to tackle “rogue” outlets tied to the Kremlin’s propaganda output.
Mr McGrath said intelligence briefings he had received in his commission role provided “ample evidence” of malicious actors targeting European elections.
“In the main, these threats are coming online. You know, we saw the recent deep fake AI video just before the Irish presidential election. They’re getting better and better all the time. So you know unsuspecting voters could very easily fall for something like that,” said the former Fianna Fáil minister for finance.
The counter-disinformation hub, which will be called the European centre for democratic resilience, will be set up next year. Exact details of the budget and team headcount still need to be finalised. National governments’ co-operation with the new centre will be on a voluntary basis.
Speaking on Wednesday, Mr McGrath said there was a need for greater information sharing between the 27 EU states, as well as countries eager to join the bloc, who could be particularly vulnerable to Russian influence operations.
“We [must] make sure if there is excellent insights being learned by one authority in one member state of the European Union, that that is not sitting in a silo, that that is shared,” Mr McGrath said.
The commission said it will also work with social media influencers to spread the word about their industry’s “responsibilities when engaging in political campaigning”. Influencers taking money to promote one side in an election will be asked to voluntarily commit to certain “ethical standards,” the commission said.
