— The Director General for External and EU Relations, Jesús Gamallo, took part in the meeting together with regional and local institutions, experts, diplomats and senior officials from NATO and the United States

— Two European reports warn of the proliferation of these malpractices in multiple media and propose greater education, transparency and support to address them

Elblag (Poland), May 11th 2023.

Jesús Gamallo, Director General for External and EU Relations, took part today in Elblag (Poland) in a meeting of the CIVEX Commission of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) to discuss with experts the effects of disinformation on democracy in Europe and its influence on the shaping of public opinion and electoral processes.

CoR members discussed the need to promote digital education and media support to lessen the effects of disinformation campaigns. The key issue is to determine the boundaries between freedom of expression and “disinformation” itself amplified through different media and with the use of artificial intelligence.

The Director-General pointed out that the media is a key element for healthy democracies, and that it would therefore be interesting to have tools to detect disinformation and to be able to react by removing fake news from platforms. “European cooperation in the development of tools to detect false information should be encouraged so that new media do not become a mouthpiece for discord and hate speech,” he said.

In addition, in order to reduce the impact of Russia’s disinformation and destabilisation campaigns regarding the invasion of Ukraine, the EU’s work on analysis and research was discussed. In this context, the first Report on Threats of Manipulation and Interference of Foreign Information by the European External Action Service (EEA) was presented.

The first Report on Threats of Manipulation and Interference of Foreign Information by the EEA was presented

Subsequently, the Handbook of Good Practices to counter Disinformation at Local and Regional Level, published by the CoR in 2022 and proposing a European framework based on digital education, support for information and communication professionals and increased transparency, was presented.

The Committee of the Regions’ CIVEX Commission

The European Committee of the Regions represents local and regional authorities in the European Union, and advises on policies and legislation that have a direct impact on them. Galicia has one full member and one alternate member in this political assembly composed of 329 members and their respective alternates.

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