FactcheckEU. The European news website Euractiv.com publishes an article entitled "Website to fact-check campaign claims for the European elections."
According to the publication, the FactcheckEU initiative will check EU documents in order to determine how true the claims of European politicians are in view of the European elections in May.
The publication cites as an example the incorrect statement by the President of the European Parliament and candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission, Martin Schulz, on the amount of Europe's losses from tax evasion.
Specifically, the German politician stated in an interview with Czech television that “2 trillion euros are being lost” due to tax evasion across Europe. According to the Commission’s estimates, this amount amounts to 1 trillion euros.
This was not the first time that politicians have used incorrect data during their campaign for the European elections, the publication notes.
For this reason, the FactcheckEU will systematically check for similar types of inaccuracies, calling on politicians to be properly informed before addressing European citizens.
The website's co-founder Pietro Curatolo told Euractiv that the "truth meter" would compile the speeches and statements of politicians with the aim of holding them accountable for what they say. "We want to make sure that when politicians speak, they don't just spout numbers," he said. He had previously launched a similar initiative in Italy, where "politicians often talk nonsense. We wanted to see if what politicians said was true.".
