Blog: “We’re not in the situation of a migrant crisis at the borders any longer”

“We must expel all illegal immigrants and close our external borders,” expresses Nicolas Bay, vice-president of the European Identity and Democracy Group, during the plenary session of 19 January. Relying on the statistics mentioned in the Frontex press release about irregular migrants, Bay creates the image of an unmanageable flow of people entering Europe without…

fact checking

Mostly false: 99% of landings from EU-managed stocks are sustainably fished

On the 4th of February 2021, Europêche released a statement on their website that claimed 99% of the landings from EU-managed stocks were fished sustainably. Research shows the claim is mostly false. Europêche is an organization representing vessels and fishermen from ten European countries. They promote fluent communication between the European institutions and the fishing…

Mostly True: “Europe gave 700 million euros to Libya in the last six years”

In April, Hanne Beirens, director of the Migration Policy Institute appeared on Terzake, a news show aired by the Flemish public broadcast organisation. As she and the television host discussed migrants drowning near the Libyan coast, Beirens mentioned that “Europe gave 700 million euros to Libya in the last six years.” That claim is mostly…

fact checking

Mostly false: “The previous ESM doesn’t exist anymore. It has become a fund without conditionalities”

The President of European Parliament David Sassoli claims on Twitter that the old European Stability Mechanism (ESM) doesn’t exist anymore and it has become a fund that all member countries can take advantage of without conditionalities, to cope with medical emergency caused by Covid-19 pandemic. The claim seems to be his remark following the Eurogroup…

Several initiatives are analysing the spread and combatting fake news.

Blog: Disinformation before the European elections – how big is the threat?

Since the controversial Facebook scandal, which was uncovered at the beginning of 2018, the topic of disinformation on the internet has become the focus of many discussions in the US election campaign. Even before the German federal election in September 2017, there were warnings to be vigilant against possible disinformation campaigns and propaganda incitement. Recently,…