The European Union's (EU) foreign service lacks the resources and authority to effectively counter hybrid attacks coming from China, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.
"Today, we do not have a mandate to study disinformation coming from China," Borrell told members of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.
He said the EU had been under constant pressure over the past year from countries that distort information and spread disinformation to advance their own political interests. While the EU has stepped up its efforts to unblock disinformation campaigns from Moscow, Borrell said “We have very few resources to study disinformation from China.”
He said that EU foreign policy does not have the resources "necessary to counter Chinese campaigns aimed at influencing European politics."
Hybrid attacks "have targeted our democratic values, our information space and even our infrastructure, our critical infrastructure during the pandemic," he said, calling the global health crisis "a real testing ground for new hybrid tactics."
The EU's external service's disinformation department has a dedicated unit for Russian disinformation attacks and campaigns. Other officials monitor campaigns from around the world, but they are understaffed and underresourced to deal with the growing number of hybrid attacks.
Borrell said Europe is at a disadvantage in its efforts to protect itself from Russia's disinformation campaigns targeting Europe: "We do not have the ability to mass-produce information presenting our own views," he said.
The EU's foreign policy chief said that this organization has the ability to identify disinformation campaigns, but not to protect itself from them.
(Article from www.politico.eu)