Nicusor Dan: European Commission planning to unveil

  The European Commission has set itself the goal to unveil a "democracy shield" by the end of this year, President Nicusor Dan said on Thursday, following his participation in the 7th meeting of the European Political Community. The day before, the Romanian president attended the informal European Council, where he presented the Prosecutor General's report on the annulment of the Romanian presidential election."The novelty of this document is that it describes a mechanism that - put briefly - means websites on various apparently benign topics, such as spirituality, but for which the Prosecutor's Office has proven that the advertising was done by companies based in Russia, which link to some so-called news websites that are actually clones of respectable sites," the head of state explained.He pointed out that the Community Executive has set itself as a goal to at least propose for debate by the end of this year a so-called "democracy shield" and that discussions on what this involves will probably take place in the coming weeks.In Romania, Nicusor Dan said, "various institutions act in coordination and in cases of obvious disinformation, they simply take down the content, but we still have work to do on how to combat it".The president explained that the Republic of Moldova was better prepared for hybrid attacks, "because it was expecting them, unlike Romania, which assisted Moldova even in 2024, but did not fathom that it would be targeted by an attack of such magnitude".President Dan said that in the event of new elections, the November 2024 phenomenon will not be repeated, "but in general there is still a lot to do in the area of public communication and social networks."   President Nicusor Dan presented, at the meeting of the European Political Community in Copenhagen, general prosecutor Alex Florenta's report on Calin Georgescu's case and foreign interferences in last year's presidential elections. The document, which describes mechanisms of online disinformation and manipulation, aroused the European leaders' interest.“Many people asked for a copy and said they would read it on the return plane,” the head of state declared.   Nicusor Dan pointed out that Romania drew important conclusions form the November 2024 election episode, when Calin Georgescu won the first round of presidential elections which was then cancelled following the secret services' report about foreign interferences and broken rules.   “Romania did not imagine that an attack of those dimensions could take place... When we have new elections, a phenomenon like that of November 2024 will not happen again,” said the president, acknowledging that “we still have much to do in the area of public communication and social networks.” The head of state explained that the novelty of the report consisted in demonstrating the way in which apparently common websites were fed with advertising financed from Russia sent then to clones of respectable publications.   “The Prosecution proved that mechanism and the European Commission decided to set up a diplomatic shield until the end of the year”, Nicusor Dan pointed out. The president showed that evidence confirmed the existence of a “hybrid war” initiated by Russia against European states, Romania included, in order to distabilize society.   The head of state said that “he liked a lot the General Prosecutor's report made two weeks ago”, which confirmed that companies and advertising accounts from Russia were used to amplify campaign messages and support the disinformation process.   “As for foreign financing we have the evidence of one million euros from Mr Peschir. For physical distabilising attempts we already have the investigation with Potra's group. Before the prosecution report we did not have proof about the fact that Russia had interefered with advertising in the election campaign. We have evidence of tha fact that there had been a large number of websites whose advertising could reach a large number of people and in which process accounts and companies from Russia were used. This is a fact revealed by the General Prosecution in a report,” said Nicusor Dan.   The president pointed out the fact that a few more months are needed to have a complete image. “We do not have a full image, we probably need a few more months. When we have a complete image of what happened in November I will present it publicly”.   Asked what should Romania learn from the experience of the Republic of Moldova, the president said that our neighbours had the advantage of being prepared after what had already happened in our country. “Moldova was better prepared, because it expected what had happened. Romania did not imagine that such an attack could take place,” Nicusor Dan added.   At the same time, he pointed out the European enthusiasm about Moldova's accession and the hope that the process could be completed not later than in 2028.  (Photo:https://www.presidency.ro/)