On October 10-11, 2022, the Czech Defence, Interior and Foreign Ministries will jointly organise the Strengthening Resilience and Countering Hybrid Interference conference in Prague as part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The goal of the conference is to deepen the discussion about the rise of the hybrid interference in Europe and on instruments to jointly face it.
The phenomenon of hybrid interference ever more jeopardises the workings of democratic institutions, rule of law processes and our security at large. In order to achieve inimical objectives threatening our societies, both state and non-state actors increasingly make use of tools that appear legal and legitimate. Deliberately employing various types of hybrid activities, such as manipulating information, cyber attacks or economic pressure, the actors seek to test our resilience, identify our weaknesses and disrupt unity, cohesion and democratic values of our society and our countries. The great danger of hybrid interference is its more or less covert nature that does not emanate apparent threats, which the affected actor would be able to feel immediately. That however does not change anything about the threat generated by hybrid attacks nor the fact that the impact on the targeted country can be devastating. We need to defend against that together.
The options to cooperate on facing hybrid interference will be discussed in the conference launched in Prague today. The participants will focus on tools being created on the EU level to face those ever growing threats, primarily covering two specific instruments – the Hybrid Toolbox designed to provide the framework for a coordinated response to hybrid campaigns, and the Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) Toolbox. The two assets have been created to the effect of strengthening security and resilience of all EU Member States. The discussion will focus on the cooperation of NATO and the European Union, hybrid interference by the Russian Federation, including the context of the ongoing war against Ukraine, the People’s Republic of China and possible cooperation with selected countries of the Eastern Partnership. The conference will discuss the options for the EU to possibly support local democratic structures, civic societies and independence of media.
The speakers and the audience will include leading experts from the government, private sector and the academia both from the Czech Republic and all other EU Member States. The conference will also host representatives of non-EU countries – specifically Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, which have a large experience with hybrid interference, especially that originating from Russia. The conference will also host participants from the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats based in Helsinki, Finland, a renowned organisation created under the auspices of both the EU and NATO.
We do not have to go far to find an illustrative example of hybrid interference. Russia’s unprecedented and unjustifiable aggression against Ukraine is complemented by intensive Russian interference in the information domain. Disinformation websites and social networks deliberately spread fake or manipulated pro-Russian narratives designed to undermine trust in Czech and other EU democratic institutions, divide societies, disseminate official Russian statements and weaken our support to Ukraine. The Russian hybrid interference, which also preceded the current Russian aggression, also involves a limited use of armed violence, such as in the case of illegal annexation of Crimea or support to puppet regimes in the regions in Eastern Ukraine under Moscow’s control. Hybrid campaigns need to be taken ever more seriously, as they may eventually result in a military aggression. Many European states, much like the European Union as a whole, have a rich experience with sustained hybrid interference not only by Russia, but also by China and other countries.
It is the complex nature of hybrid threats that calls for cooperation on strengthening our resilience and the capacity to counter those threats. The European Union is the key platform for bolstering our capabilities of early detection of hybrid activities, adequate response and ideally also preventing them as much as possible. That is also why facing hybrid threats is high on the priority list of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.