Why News Agencies Are Europe’s Crucial Line of Defense Against Disinformation
Securing Europe's Information Space: The Strategic Role of News Agencies and Copyright - by Patrick Lacroix, CEO of Belga News Agency. European Parliament, May 5th, 2026.
On May 5th, 2026, the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) gathered at the European Parliament in Brussels for a crucial debate on the role of news agencies in fighting disinformation in Europe. Hosted by European Parliament Vice Presidents Pina Picierno and Antonella Sberna, the event featured special guest Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy. Speakers also included EANA President Stefano de Alessandri, several MEPs, Patrick Lacroix, Board Member of EANA and CEO of Belga News Agency and other representatives from the news and technology sectors.
Here’s the Press Release of EANA on this event:
News Agencies call for stronger protection of trusted information at EANA debate in Brussels
The shared message during the debate was loud and clear: amidst the rise of generative AI and synthetic media, news agencies are calling for a much stronger protection of trusted information. During this event, I had the honor of addressing the room on securing Europe’s information space and the strategic role that news agencies and future-proof copyright laws must play. Because this theme affects us all, I am glad to share the full text of my speech below.
Securing Europe's Information Space: The Strategic Role of News Agencies and Copyright by Patrick Lacroix
Honorable Vice Presidents of the European Parliament, Executive Vice-President Virkkunen, esteemed Members of the Parliament, colleagues, and guests,
Europe is taking bold, decisive steps forward. The European Union is currently mobilizing hundreds of billions of euros to strengthen our general R&D, our climate transition, and our military defense. These are the necessary ambitions of a geopolitical power aiming to secure its technological sovereignty and future prosperity. We wholeheartedly applaud and support these massive investments.
However, to truly safeguard these investments and the European values they represent, such as the rule of law, human dignity, and the social market economy, they must be supported by an equally robust democratic foundation. Today, I want to talk to you about the missing, yet vital, pillar in this grand architecture: our Democratic Information Infrastructure. For over a century, European news agencies have been the silent engine of this infrastructure. It is a common misconception to view us simply as B2B content suppliers whose sole purpose is to serve the brand identity of legacy and digital media.
Our role has always been vastly broader. Since our very inception-often established by national states or major economic actors-we have been the primary, verified information feed not just for the media, but for national governments, institutions, and the corporate world. We deliver the dry, factual, objective data required for compliance, risk assessment, and high-level institutional decision-making. Just as a geopolitical superpower requires a highly resilient energy grid to power its industries, a healthy democracy requires an unpolluted, factual data grid to power its decisions. Therefore, news agencies should be formally recognized in EU regulation for what we are: Europe’s Critical Information Infrastructure.
Securing this infrastructure is more urgent today than ever before, as we face unprecedented challenges driven by technological shifts and geopolitical pressures. Let me be absolutely clear: we do not point fingers at artificial intelligence or algorithms themselves. These are neutral, remarkable tools. The challenge lies in the mechanics of their current deployment. Many platform algorithms are primarily optimized for engagement, clicks, and watch time. Consequently, they inadvertently but systematically amplify emotional, polarizing, and often misleading content. Simultaneously, the rapid rise of generative Al and Agentic Al is flooding our digital space with synthetic information. This continuous exposure to conflicting information and machine-generated noise creates a profound and dangerous uncertainty among our citizens. People are increasingly losing the ability to distinguish verified facts from fabricated fiction.
Foreign, authoritarian regimes understand this dynamic perfectly. In autocratic states, the control over media and digital infrastructure is deeply intertwined with their security apparatus. They treat information systems explicitly as strategic weapons to manipulate public opinion and attack democratic values. To defend Europe against these operations, defensive legislation is not enough. The hard power of the 21st century is built with software. In this landscape, European news agencies act as the vital filtration system of our society. We continuously inject verified, balanced data into the ecosystem, acting as the ultimate counterweight to disinformation.
Yet, this critical infrastructure is under severe financial pressure. Historically, the broader media landscape has relied heavily on advertising revenues to fund journalistic endeavors. Today, those revenues are under immense strain. Because the media ecosystem is struggling, it can no longer bear the sole financial burden of sustaining the heavy, resource-intensive operations of news agencies. To ensure our excellence, we also must transition away from fragmented, short-term project fundings towards high-level, structural financing. Europe must structurally invest in its shared democratic information infrastructure. Crucially, ensuring our financial viability in the digital age also requires a sophisticated evolution of how we protect our core assets.
Traditional copyright has always been the bedrock of our industry, and its fundamental principles remain absolutely essential. As we rapidly transition into a machine-to-machine economy, driven by Al, the days of relying solely on the pre-Al legal framework are clearly over. We must refine, sharpen, and adapt our copyright instruments to be highly sophisticated and fully integrated into the technological workflows of tomorrow. As the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), we strongly support the JURI Committee’s initiative report, which recognizes that current frameworks are inadequate for Al developments. We must evolve toward a future-proof, seamless licensing model for protected content.
What does this mean in practice? First and foremost, we advocate for a mandatory opt-in system specifically for the use of our journalistic, infrastructural data in Al models. We are not asking to restrict the open internet; we are asking to protect the verified building blocks of our democracy. Second, we need true, itemized transparency regarding the works used by Al models. This transparency must be facilitated through modern, machine-readable rights reservations and intelligent integrations via APIs and advanced protocols like MCP. Third, we propose the establishment of processes that allow rights holders to express differentiated rights in a way that aligns with sustainable B2B business models. This could be supported by a EUIPO centralized European register for opt-outs to strengthen technical enforceability.
Achieving all this requires a fundamental shift in approach. We cannot afford a polarized standoff between publishers and tech companies. The solution lies in a structural collaboration between three key players: the technology industry, European regulators, and the news agencies. We invite you together with the software engineers, developers, and Al companies to sit down with us. Let us jointly develop the technical standards, workflows, and licensing protocols needed to sustain value creation for all participants in this critical information infrastructure.
By combining your legislative power and our journalistic fact-driven data, with their engineering brilliance, we can construct a secure, machine-readable information space. Furthermore, by embracing these new Al technologies ourselves, we create a unique opportunity for Europe. Language barriers are disappearing. We can utilize Al to integrate our output, creating a truly centralized, multilingual European information space. This will allow us to report cross-border on critical, pan-European issues like technology and cyber security, geopolitical tensions, climate, economy and migration, transcending purely national filters and strengthening the European identity.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently fighting a battle for the very foundation of our democratic society. We cannot afford to be mere spectators to technological disruption. We must be the architects of our own democratic infrastructure. I will leave you with this final thought: Anyone who takes the battle for Europe’s sovereignty in energy, defense, and technology seriously, simply cannot afford an underinvestment in the critical news infrastructure of our democracy.
Thank you.
The fight against disinformation and the protection of our democratic infrastructure is not a challenge we can solve in isolation. As I emphasized in Brussels, it requires a structural and constructive dialogue between policymakers, technology companies, and the journalistic sector. If we succeed in designing future-proof frameworks together and recognizing the true value of factual, verified data, we lay the foundation for a resilient digital ecosystem. Only then can we defend European values and guarantee that future generations can build upon a secure and reliable information landscape.