Public Relations and Communications experts are to begin working by the end of March in Brussels — the end goal is to counter the Kremlin.
The EU says Russia is deliberately distributing misinformation surrounding Moscow's aim in Ukraine and Europe.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has been set the task of finalising the plan by the end of June. A statement issued following a meeting amongst the leaders "stressed the need to challenge Russia's ongoing disinformation campaigns".
Debating challenges in today's journalism #vilnius.Kremlin driven propaganda remains main topic. #BelieveinFreedom pic.twitter.com/HkkjUyqjv8
— Jerzy Pomianowski (@j_pomianowski) March 10, 2015
The unit in Brussels set up to wage a propaganda war on Russia is to "develop an EU narrative through key messages, articles, op-eds, factsheets and infographics, including material in Russian".
European Endowment for Democracy (EED) director Jerzy Pomianowski called for "greater integration and cooperation" among Russian language media in states bordering Russia to compete with Moscow's programming.
Some EU officials say they can't compete with Russia's expensive and far reaching TV or social media channels. According to an EU official:
"Countering Russia's hard propaganda with its same weapons would not be effective and is not feasible."
The EU-funded European Endowment for Democracy will present the media proposals to a summit in Latvia in May.
