The Community Green Course before the EP elections is in the crosshairs of disinformation

One of the most important projects of the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a second term, is the ambitious commitment to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This would make Europe the first climate-neutral continent.

But it has drawn criticism from the fossil fuel industry and the agricultural sector, as well as from right-wing politicians.

One of the opposition’s tools is social media, where the far right, climate change skeptics and conspiracy theorists are using disinformation to discredit the Green Deal, said Arnaud Mercier, a professor of information and communication sciences at Pantheon-Assas University in Paris.

Emboldened by such trends, social media users who are already suspicious of Europe or climate science feel empowered to share false or misleading claims in the name of justice, he told AFP.

Experts have pointed out that states such as Russia are also seeking to undermine the European Union through its green initiative.

“The Kremlin is actively spreading disinformation related to the Green Deal,” said Martin Vladimirov, director of the Sofia Center for Democracy Studies, pointing to propaganda about the dangers of wind turbines.

Confrontation in social networks

Fact-checking AFP journalists have debunked a number of false or misleading claims in recent months about aspects of the Green Deal in areas such as transport, energy, agriculture and biodiversity.

One false claim, widely circulated in Romanian, claimed that Brussels would soon introduce “carbon passports” to measure each person’s carbon dioxide emissions, and would allegedly restrict their travel if they exceeded a set limit.

Gianina Serban, a spokeswoman for the country’s far-right AUR party, fueled the disinformation, complaining that the EU “seems to be turning into a kind of Soviet commissariat that imposes restrictions.”

She called on Romanians to resist and vote for, in her words, patriots and supporters of the country’s sovereignty in the June 6-9 elections.

Voters are also concerned about their cars.

In order to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the EU wants to phase out the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles and replace them with electric cars by 2035.

Many saw it as an attack on personal freedoms, with social media users across Europe sharing misleading claims that Brussels wants to ban repairs on vehicles over 15 years old, or even confiscate and scrap them.

In fact, the European Commission proposed in July 2023 to revise the text on so-called end-of-life vehicles to better manage their recycling.

Another example is the nature restoration law passed by the EP at the end of February. In Sweden, social media users demanded that their country leave the EU after false claims that the law would ban all farming in protected areas.

There is no discussion

“A lot of fake news is hyperbolic and out of context,” Mercier said.

According to him, such methods are all the more likely to target “such a complex apparatus as the European Union with several levels of government, many stakeholders and lobby groups”.

One method is to present a proposal or measure that is still under consideration in the EU decision-making process as a specific piece of legislation already adopted by the EP.

In general, political rhetoric doesn’t say exactly what the real issues are in order to reach some sort of compromise, Mercier said. And it inadvertently encourages misinformation because it “opens up a space to be filled by alternative stories.”

Alvaro Oleart, a researcher at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, said that the discourse of U. von der Leyen and the supporters of the Green Course is too technocratic and not sufficiently politicized.

“The best way to combat misinformation is not so much to fact-check as to encourage political debate on the left and the right,” Oleart said. According to him, politicizing these issues would reveal the winners and losers, making it easier for voters.

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