EDP Secretary General and MEP Sandro Gozi launches today the work on a new EU law which will regulate political advertising.
The main purpose of the Regulation is to lay down harmonised transparency obligations for providers of political advertising, and to introduce harmonised rules on the use of targeting and amplification techniques for political advertising, where personal data is used. The political advertising services in the EU are evolving, showing particular increase in online services, which are often provided cross border. The digital transition and technological changes have enabled a proliferation of different new media and methods of funding, preparation, placement, promotion, publication and dissemination of political advertising. These developments, against the background of fragmented and unevenly enforced national regulation, clearly demonstrate, that the internal market rules should be adapted so that to ensure adequate level of transparency for political advertising, necessary for a fair and open electoral process in all Member States
Sandro Gozi declared: “Today my draft report on transparency and targeting of political advertising has been made public.
Politics is constantly changing shape and political advertising is becoming an ever more important dimension thereof. The development of political advertising has also important economic and societal effects.
Our challenge is to combat more effectively all forms of disinformation and external interferences in our democratic processes while preserving the openness of the public debate. With this proposal, the next elections in the EU will be more transparent.
This very timely proposal from the Commission will strengthen and complete our single market by introducing harmonised rules for transparency in political advertising, to overcome the harmful fragmentation that currently persists in this area.
This Regulation is meant to cover advertising that takes place on all forms of media, including online. According to a Eurobarometer survey, eight in ten Europeans believe that online social networks, Internet platforms and actors using them should observe the same rules as traditional media in a pre-election period. Moreover, almost four persons in ten said that they were exposed to content that they could not easily determine as being a political advertisement.
Furthermore, in recent years we have seen dubious political advertising proliferate in elections and referenda in a number of countries across the world. Foreign malign actors have shown no qualms to using all the existing loopholes to interfere in domestic democratic processes. Last but not least, it is often unclear how an advertisement is directed at a specific person or group of people.
My draft report makes some needed further clarifications as to the scope, definitions and obligations of all actors involved in the process of political advertising. We strengthened the level of transparency to enable citizens to easily distinguish a political advertisement, to know why they are seeing it, and who paid for it. Furthermore, the report strengthens the governance by improving the cooperation between national authorities and by asking for more harmonised penalties. Finally, the report better defines and regulates the different digital techniques, such as targeting and amplification.
The official presentation of the draft report in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee, will be on the 11th – 12th of July. I am convinced that thanks to the further suggestions by my IMCO colleagues, we will manage to improve the current text of the proposal even further, with the ultimate goal of having transparent and fair elections in the EU, starting from 2024.”
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Sandro Gozi to Vučić: “Serbia cannot join Europe with repression and lies”
The Secretary General of the European Democratic Party and Member of the European Parliament with Renew Europe, Sandro Gozi, has published an open letter to the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, with a copy to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The initiative follows Vučić’s letter sent to Brussels on 21 August, in which he accused Serbian students and demonstrators of violence, reversing the truth and blaming the victims of repression.
In his statement, Gozi denounces the hundreds of arrests of students and peaceful citizens, the use of a sonic cannon (LRAD) during the March protest in Novi Sad, the shocking video of students forced to their knees and filmed by police, the violent arrests of women and even minors, and the attack on press freedom with intimidation against N1, documented by OCCRP/KRIK.
Gozi stresses that it is not citizens who endanger Serbia’s European path, but President Vučić and his government. By resorting to repression, false narratives and attacks on fundamental freedoms, they are undermining the credibility and the European future of the country.
Open Letter
To the President of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić
with a copy to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen
President Vučić,
Your letter of 21 August addressed to President von der Leyen is a masterpiece of hypocrisy. But facts, numbers and images tell another story.
In recent months, hundreds of people have been arrested in Serbia, including students and peaceful citizens. Many of them remain in prison today, facing charges that are essentially political. In practice, this undermines their freedom of expression and discourages democratic participation. It is not the citizens who are destabilising the country: it is your government, repressing the right to protest.
In March, during a commemoration in Novi Sad, a sonic cannon (LRAD) was used against demonstrators, A weapon, capable of provoking harsh pain, panic and permanent hearing damage. A practice that has nothing to do with the european standards you claim to embrace.
On 15 August, a video showed fifteen young people forced to their knees against a wall, filmed by police officers. An act of public humiliation, in total contempt for human dignity and contrary to every democratic standard.
And this was not an isolated case: in those same days, other footage and testimonies clearly showed worrying heavy-handed arrests, with students dragged to the ground, women and even minors treated without regard for their rights.
While students are beaten and arrested, citizens have witnessed violent groups apparently close to your party moving about undisturbed.
This selective tolerance raises serious concerns of rule of law.
Equally serious is the attack on freedom of information. N1, a news channel belonging to United Media (United Group), has been the target of a campaign of intimidation and pressure documented in recordings published by OCCRP/KRIK. You know perfectly well that silencing the last independent broadcaster means suffocating truth and pluralism.
President Vučić, it is not the youth, it is not the citizens, it is not the demonstrators who are jeopardising the European path of Serbia: Serbia belongs to Europe. But it is you — with your policies, your denyal your statements — which are undermining the credibility and the european path of your country.
Your accusations against Nikolina Sindjelić are embarrassing . The evidence shows that threats, unlawful arrests and violence have indeed taken place: personal attacks do not erase reality.
Your letter must therefore be sent back to the sender.
Serbian citizens deserve much better and Europe is something else: freedom, dignity, democracy.
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Joint statement on the 30th Anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide
Thirty years ago, in Srebrenica, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered by the Bosnian Serb army. In 2007, the International Court of Justice ruled that the atrocities constituted genocide. The wider Bosnian War saw over 100,000 killed, thousands of women raped, and more than two million people forced from their homes between 1992 and 1995. On this solemn occasion remembering one of the darkest chapters in Europe’s recent history, the ALDE Party, LIBSEEN members in the region, ALDE in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, European Democratic Party, Liberal International, LYMEC, Renew Europe in the Committee of the Regions, Renew Europe in the European Parliament, and the Young Democrats for Europe are united in honouring their memory and issue the following statement:
