Portugal is part of a European network of experts to combat disinformation and cyberattacks that already includes 30 volunteer countries, members of the European Political Community (CPE), a source in the Prime Minister’s Office told Luce this Friday.
The creation of the network was announced on Thursday by French President Emmanuel Macron, who, together with Moldova, headed a working group on this issue within the framework of the European Political Community (CPE) summit.
Macron made the announcement at a press conference following the event, which took place at Blenheim Palace in northwest London.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro had planned to attend the CPE meeting but cancelled his attendance for health reasons, and this Friday he extended the period during which he will have no agenda until Sunday for the same reasons, which are not reported to be serious but require rest.
The network, which has already attracted volunteers from 30 CPE member countries, including Portugal, will coordinate the work of experts “to define common standards and protocols for identifying information manipulation and cyber-attacks.”
Macron stressed on Thursday that European countries could “benefit from best practices and promote transparency in social media algorithms that could facilitate the manipulation of information.”
The network will go beyond existing European Union (EU) mechanisms to include states outside the bloc, particularly some of those most susceptible to Russian disinformation, such as Moldova.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also called on European leaders not to accept threats to democracy such as disinformation and rumours and to actively defend their values and institutions.
Sanchez, according to sources in the Spanish delegation at the Efe news agency, warned of the threats to democracies in addition to wars such as the one in Ukraine, and in this context he placed views and strategies that promote disinformation and rumors.
The Spanish politician also said that democratic countries cannot remain impassive and their leaders, who stressed that they were democratically elected, must confront them to defend their values and institutions.
He stressed that conditions for healthy and open political debate, as well as freedom of expression, must be actively guaranteed at all times.
The European Political Community is an intergovernmental forum for political and strategic debate on the future of Europe, created in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.