Russiagate: Zero-tolerance policy to foreign interference and corruption in the European institutions

The Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament strongly condemns the continuous efforts by Russia to undermine European democracy and to spur divisions among European citizens by recruiting MEPs as influence agents, as shown by recent credible reports.

Following a request made by our political group, MEPs today approved a resolution on allegations of Russian interference in the democratic processes of the European Union, expressing deep concerns about Kremlin’s efforts aiming to create a system of dependencies by European political parties, who then act as amplifiers of its propaganda.

Renew Europe calls on the Member States to further develop and fine-tune the sanction packages adopted against the Russian Federation, while closing the loopholes in the enforcement of the restrictive measures currently in force. It is also imperative for the European Parliament to immediately conduct a thorough internal investigation in order to assess all possible cases of foreign interference from Russia and misbehaviours from its own Members.

Renew Europe MEP, Nathalie Loiseau (Horizons, France), Chair of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence and co-rapporteur of the 2023 report of the Special Committee on Foreign Interference, said:

“After the Qatargate, the far right and the far left parties in this House tried to put an end to the Special Committee on Foreign Interference, to make us focus only on the Qatar related scandal and avoid at all costs any mention about the Russian interference in our Parliament. But we stood strong and their plan never succeeded.

Now we read the reports published by the press of a determined action by Russia to use a Member of the European Parliament for the purposes of propaganda and intelligence, while the links of the Catalan separatists with the Russian authorities come to light as well.

We urgently need to enhance security culture within the European Parliament, to reform our rules on transparency, integrity, accountability and anti-corruption. Russian interference is a weapon of mass destruction of our democracy.”

MEP Adrián Vázquez Lázara (Ciudadanos, Spain), Chair of the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, added:

"Putin does not only threaten the EU with bombs at our gates but also attempts to blow up our democracy from the inside though interference.

It happened in Brexit, it also happened in other separatists attempts like in Catalonia and it is happening in Brussels now. After media and judicial implications, this needs to be thoroughly investigated. And we will ask for names and explanations.”