PRESS RELEASE: ECR PARTY CALLS ON MEPS TO QUESTION EUROPEAN COMMISSION OVER CHINA

The European Conservatives and Reformists Party have issued an open letter calling on the European Commission to investigate and explain the allegations that China had undue influence on a recent report produced on the role that China and Russia had played in spreading misinformation during the Coronavirus Crisis.

The letter, written by Spanish Member of the European Parliament Hermann Tertsch, calls on President Urusula Von der Leyen and High Representative Josep Borrell to explain the recent reports in Politico and the New York Times that language critical to China was removed from a report on misinformation as a direct result of Chinese interference.

The letter sets out four questions for the Commission to answer:

1. Does the European Commission have evidence that the Chinese government has been spreading misinformation in Europe related to the COVID-19 outbreak?
2. If so, what steps has the European Commission taken to alert members states and the public?
3. Equally – is there any evidence to suggest that the European External Action Service was under undue external influence to self censor the report on disinformation?
4. Regardless of if there has been influence or not on the particular report cited, what steps has the EEAS taken to counter foreign interference in the reporting process?

Last Thursday (23rd April) the ECR Party held a webinar as part of their Europe Debates series on the threat posed by China in which MEPs Hermann Tertsch and Anna Fotyga both spelled out their fears of Chinese influence in Europe in the spread of disinformation.

The ECR Party hopes that this letter will lead to a wider investigation into the influence that the Chinese Communist Party has in Brussels.