MEP Katarina Barley: Far-right alliances and disinformation challenge EU democracy

According to German MEP Katarina Barley, the “tone in the European Parliament has become a lot harsher” one year after EU citizens voted to elect its new members.

The European Parliament held elections one year ago, from 6 to 9 June 2024, in which around 373 million EU citizens from 27 countries were eligible to vote to choose the next 720 members. The outcome was marked by a shift to the right with significant gains for right-wing and far-right parties.

Barley, Vice-President of the Parliament as well as a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), told the European Newsroom (enr) she is concerned about the increasing political collaboration between the far-right and conservatives – as well as the growing threat disinformation to Europe’s democracies.

One year after the elections, what do you see as the European Parliament’s biggest legislative achievement?

“The European Union is the only legal region in the world that has managed to regulate the digital sphere. And I think this is the biggest achievement that we have made and that we continue to expand in this new mandate.”

How has the dynamic of the European Parliament changed when the right and extreme right gained ground after the elections?

“The tone in the European Parliament has become a lot harsher and the majorities have shifted. So sometimes we see progressive majorities, but sometimes we also see majorities of the conservatives together with the extreme right. And this is something that worries us as progressives and democrats.”

As Vice President of the European Parliament: What is the biggest democratic challenge to the institution’s democratic credibility?

“The biggest challenge for all of us, I think, in our democratic societies is disinformation. We see that it becomes very easy to consume lies and conspiracy theories and much more difficult to achieve reliable, trustworthy information. And this is an ongoing challenge, and democracy depends on it. If we all are misinformed and manipulated, then democracy is in real danger.”

You also work on consumer protection. What is one EU rule that citizens benefit from daily but they might not know about?

“The EU protects you and your personal data online, but it’s also in normal daily life that the products you consume are healthy and trustworthy. For example, in cosmetics we have banned 1,600 chemicals, whereas the US for example only has banned 11. So you are very safe here when you consume products in the EU.”

Do the Commission’s latest moves, for example on passenger rights, indicate a trend towards weakening consumer protections? And if yes, can the Parliament counter them?

“With the new majorities in Parliament, we see a shift towards interests of the economy, competitivity cutting red tape, etc. and we have to be very careful that consumer protection is not some of the so-called red tape that is cut, too. So we need the political majorities to continue protecting consumers in the European Union. We will be fighting for it.”

Editorial note: the paragraph about the 2024 European Parliament elections has been updated to contextualise the political shift in the European Parliament.

This article is published twice a week. The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr.