EU Plans to Present New Legislation to Prevent Covert Foreign Influence

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The European Union will introduce a new defense of democracy act that aims at preventing any covert foreign influence and eradicating corruption inside the bloc, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

"We will present a defense of democracy act. It will bring forward covert foreign influence, it will set the light on shady funding we will not allow any autocracy Trojan horses to attack our democracies from within," von der Leyen said in her State of the Union address in Strasbourg.

The EU Commission will also present a framework for bettering the fight against corruption in the coming year, von der Leyen added.

"This is why in the coming year the Commission will present measures to update our legislative framework for fighting corruption we will raise standards on offenses such as illicit enrichment, trafficking and influence, abuse of power beyond the more classic offenses such as bribery," von der Leyen said.

The proposal will also have a provision to make corruption a human rights violation punishable by sanctions, a tool that will help protect European values abroad, the EU Commission president said.

"Today, I would like to focus on corruption with all its faces. The face of foreign agents trying to influence our political system, the face of shady companies of foundations abusing public money if we want to be credible and we ask candidate countries to strengthen their democracies, we must also eradicate corruption at home," von der Leyen said.

Earlier in the day, media reported that the EU Commission plans to recommend cutting Hungary's funding due to concerns over corruption levels. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will reportedly be given time to fulfill anti-corruption obligations.