Borrell: Attacks on MEP advisors unacceptable

Borrell’s comments came weeks after Viola von Cramon MEP raised the question of coordinated online attacks from Kosovo on her Serbian parliamentary assistant Djordje Bojovic. Borrell said he is unable to do anything about the attacks.

A written reply from Borrell on July 31, said that “the European External Action Service (EEAS) is aware of these aforementioned attacks against Honourable Member’s accredited parliamentary assistant and local activists in Kosovo, which is unacceptable”. It added that EEAS experts concluded that there was “a degree of coordinated messaging and strategic cross-posting activity between a number of accounts” but that attribution is impossible of the few accounts analyzed.

The reply said that “X is not a signatory of the Code of practice on disinformation but is obliged, under the Digital Services Act, to assess and mitigate systemic risks, including actual or foreseeable risks to electoral processes and civic discourse.

Borrell did not address the possible accountability of the authorities in Pristina for the deliberate spread of misinformation or a possible investigation into possible links to the Kosovo government.