1st Meeting, 27 – 29 January 2026, Strasbourg
OPENING REMARKS by Director General Gianluca Esposito
Members, Participants and Observers, Dear partners,
It is a pleasure and a privilege to welcome you to the Council of Europe and to the first meeting of the Committee of Experts on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, the PC-FIMI.
As happy as I am to see you here, the reasons behind the establishment of this Committee are dark and consequential for our societies.
The very strength of our open societies with their emphasis on free information exchange and freedom of expression, has been identified as our Achilles’ heel by foreign actors that disseminate misleading and mendacious propaganda. Their ambition is to create divisions and a climate of fear in our societies, and to further their geopolitical aims .
Faced with this clear and present threat to democratic security we cannot afford to be naïve or reactive. As the Secretary General of the Council of Europe has pointed out we have to defend our democratic systems and values vigorously and continue to protect the rights that such foreign actors are in fact abusing for their own ends.
This we can best do once we take action to deter, prevent, and suppress FIMI operations, in full respect of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
It is to this end that the Committee of Ministers decided to set up the PC-FIMI.
You will be familiar with the Terms of Reference: your Committee is called upon, as a matter of urgency, to deliver a study to the Committee of Ministers on the feasibility of elaborating a Council of Europe legal instrument focusing on criminalising certain conducts relating to FIMI and potential approaches regarding prevention and awareness-raising measures.
Such a legal instrument, if agreed upon, would become a main feature of the Council of Europe’s New Democratic Pact for Europe, and a first at international level in terms of binding regulation of FIMI.
The legal instrument would not stand alone but rather would complement the many non-legal measures which other committees of this Organisation are or will be developing, or which are being implemented by other Organisations, notably the European Union. Moreover, the aim is not harmonisation of legislation in a field where national approaches and experiences differ markedly. Rather, the objective is to create a common legal framework that will help states prevent, address and cooperate around FIMI, while still leaving the flexibility needed for national specificities.
A new instrument would be a very practical tool for improving international cooperation to counter FIMI operations.
In short, you have a highly important and challenging task ahead of you, and not much time in which to complete it.
I wish you success in the work that is now starting. is difficult endeavour and assure you of the full support of the Secretariat.
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At a more practical level, you will elect a Chair and Vice-Chair for the duration of the terms of reference of PC-FIMI. To give you some time to find out who might be a good choice for the positions as Chair and Vice-Chair, the intention is to hold these elections tomorrow, after lunch. In the meantime, my colleagues - Director Hanne Juncher and Head of Department Matthias Kloth -will preside over and facilitate the meeting.
To allow the PC-FIMI to advance quickly in its task bearing in mind the deadlines set by the Committee of Ministers, , the Secretariat has prepared a preliminary draft of the feasibility study, which has been sent to you together with the agenda for the meeting.
Let me underline that this preliminary draft is not binding on you –we are in your hands with regard to the outcome – but this “zero draft” may facilitate the start of the discussions and serve as basis for your own drafting ideas.
Last but not least: To get to know each other better in a less formal atmosphere than the meeting, a cocktail event will take place this evening after the end of the afternoon session, at 18h00 outside this meeting room.
You are warmly invited, and I hope that you will benefit from this occasion to network with fellow participants and the secretariat.
I wish you a productive meeting and fruitful and constructive deliberations. Thank you for your attention!
