With a report by the Special Commission on foreign interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation (Inge), the European Parliament confirms itself as the community institution capable as well as eager to hold the toughest posture towards the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party and President Xi Jinping . More than that of the European Commission and more than that of the Member States, which perhaps have less to do with activists, perhaps more with the difficult balance between rights and mercantilist logic.
Latvian MEP Sandra Kalniete , exponent of the European People’s Party, already for a few months commissioner in the Commission led by Romano Prodiafter having been the foreign minister of her country, she delivered the draft report after a year of work by the commission chaired by the French socialist Raphael Glucksmann . Thirty-three pages in which the spotlight is on different areas, from critical infrastructures to the role of the diaspora in foreign interference.
In the crosshairs of the report, which will be voted on by the Inge in January to arrive in plenary in March, there are above all Russia, on which she, born in Siberia with parents deported from the Soviet Union, has a clear and clear position. But also China.
Four examples. First: the report strongly condemns the Hungarian government which, while deciding to open a branch of the Chinese Fudan University in Budapest, forces the Central European University ofGeorge Sorosto close in the same capital. The report expresses concern about the “growing financial dependence of European universities on China” and asks the Commission and the member countries of the Union to guarantee adequate funding and transparency of funding. Second: the report calls for a beacon to be cast on the Confucius Institutes, 200 in Europe, used by the Chinese government “as an instrument of influence” in the European Union. Third: the European diplomatic machine must “urgently” adapt, including Mandarin among its competences. Fourth: with regard to critical infrastructures, the report calls on the European Union and the Member States to “provide financing alternatives to prevent large parts of their critical infrastructures from coming into the possession of third countries”, including 5G.
The Silk Road is not directly mentioned (to which Italy joined in March 2019, under the yellow-green government chaired by Giuseppe Conte , with a memorandum of understanding). However, there is the case of the port of Piraeus in Greece and Chinese investments in submarine cables in the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Arctic. Critical infrastructures, the report reads, should also include the media: an issue that also closely affects Italy, as a recent report by the Institute of International Affairs tells us about the dozens of collaborations of a “controversial nature” between Italian newspapers and organs of the Chinese government.
Russia, China and other authoritarian regimes have invested “more than 300 million dollars (259 million euros, ed) in 33 countries to interfere in democratic processes and this trend is clearly accelerating”, it reads.
How to defend yourself
“No legislative measure can be adopted quickly enough to respond to all technological developments in real time, and like trying to use a racing car to reach a spaceship,” explained the rapporteur. “Europe must be more ambitious, rather than react in a limited way to the threats of hostile actors Beijing and Moscow,” she added. It’s still. “The European Union should not avoid speaking the language of power”. Several proposals are therefore designed to act in advance. Such as establishing a mechanism to monitor gaps in European laws that could be exploited by foreign powers. And like the call for the European Commission to include an assessment of information manipulation and foreign interference before making new proposals.
Some members of the Commission recently visited Taiwan (which greatly irritated Beijing). Among them also an Italian, the Northern League player Marco Dreosto , who told Formiche.net: “China in the recent past has had an opaque and incorrect behavior with the West. Trampling on human rights in Hong Kong, the persecution of Uighurs in Xinjiang and delays in alarming the whole world at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic are actions that cannot go unnoticed “.
He is a member of the same Commission and Bart Groothuis, Dutch MEP, member of the Macronian group Renew Europe and rapporteur of the proposal to revise the European NIS directive on the security of networks and information systems. At Formiche.net he underlined the fear of “Russian operations against submarine fiber optic cables” (in the “war of the seabed” he can count on the Gugi unit). But in his report there is also ample space for the security of 5G and the so-called “high-risk suppliers”, which is the formula used by the European Union to identify Chinese companies Huawei and Zte.
Not forgetting that many of the members of this committee, such as the German green Reinhard Butikofer, are among the main critics of the investment agreement between China and the European Union that the Commission, after pressing Parliament, has decided to freeze.
