Macron Calls for EU Agency to Stop Cyber-Attacks on Elections

(Bloomberg) -- With the European Union heading into a series of critical elections, French leader Emmanuel Macron sounded the alarm about foreign interference and called for the formation of an EU-wide body to protect voting from “cyber-attacks and manipulations.”

The creation of such an agency to counter fake news is the first proposal of its kind and came in a 1,600-word essay translated into 22 languages and to be published as an op-ed in newspapers in each of the EU's 28 members from the U.K.'s The Guardian to Madrid's El Pais. Macron's advisers said capitals had been alerted about the coming article.

In the op-ed, Macron doubled down on his vision for bloc as an ever-closer union that includes a climate bank to fund energy transition, and a regulator for Internet platforms to force greater transparency for their algorithms.

“In this spirit of independence, we should also outlaw the financing of European political parties by foreign powers,” he went on to say. “We should ban from the Internet, with European rules, all hate and violent speech, for the respect of the individual is the foundation of our civilization and dignity.”

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Macron wants to rally parties that still believe in greater European integration ahead of the late May EU parliament elections, which will be held in the shadow of the U.K.'s imminent departure and and a spirit of nationalism gripping several countries across the EU, from founding members like Italy to relative newcomers like Slovakia.

“Never since the Second World War has Europe been so necessary, and yet never has Europe been in such danger,” Macron wrote. “Brexit is a symbol, a symbol of this crisis of Europe which was not able to provide its people protection against the great shocks of the contemporary world.”

He was critical of the euro-skepticism sweeping the continent and framed it as a “rejection without a project.” He proposed the reorganization of the passport-free Schengen zone to strengthen the EU's outer borders and unify its asylum criteria, a “buy-Europe” act to benefit local businesses with public contracts.

Macron also called for greater defense cooperation to include Britain, even after Brexit. He said he had no “taboos” about rewriting EU treaties to make the changes he's proposing.

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Populist parties running the gamut from anti-establishment to anti-immigration are expected to gain seats in the late May EU parliament vote but not achieve a majority. Macron had once pushed for pan-European lists for the election, but the EU Parliament voted down that idea in favor of maintaining country-by-country voting.

Macron's En Marche party has yet to announce who will head its list in France, which votes on May 26.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, ;Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Hari Govind, Nick Lichtenberg