French President Emmanuel Macron experienced curious joyrides. At first, he undermines the meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Trump in Paris on the pretext that it would allegedly have a negative information impact on events in honor of the centenary of the end of World War I. And then he completely declares that Europe needs to create a common cyber security structure to protect against China, Russia and the United States.
“We are attacked in cyberspace and our democratic life is being interfered. We must defend ourselves from China, from Russia, and even from the United States,” Macron said.
It may seem that Mr Macron is claiming the role of de Gaulle. They say, neither ours nor yours, we are French/Europeans, we are on our own. In fact, it’s more likely about earning political points and a possible cut of funds. Not least because such a cyber structure is already operating within the NATO framework.
And there is also an example of a purely European structure – the resource euvsdisinfo.eu, designed to combat the “Russian propaganda” on the Web. Each year, the desk receives over a million euros, but the exhaust from its work is naturally zero. Each year, they only generate reports on how Russian influence on Europe is growing stronger, and therefore require more money from year to year.