by AFP | 14.Mar 2023 | Fact check
The European Union is currently working on a draft directive aimed at transforming the majority of existing residential buildings into zero-emission buildings by 2050. Since early February, internet users have claimed that this directive “provides for the expropriation” from 2030 of owners not carrying out the energy renovation work required to achieve this goal, by not allowing them to “live in their own house or to rent it out”. In reality, the directive does not provide for any set penalty, as these are to be set out by the individual member states. A ban on renting out property that is too energy-intensive already exists in France, but owners can currently still live in the homes. In Belgium, the main penalties against owners reluctant to renovate are administrative fines and rent indexation bans.
by AFP | 07.Mar 2023 | Fact check
No, the “Label Rouge” seal of quality for poultry in France will not be abolished by the European Union. Yet, online articles and commentators claim that the European Commission wants to do away with the French label in future regulation. In reality, this sign of quality assurance, which notably rewards free-range farming, is in no danger of disappearing, as explained by the European Commission and several poultry farming unions. Even so, with negotiations over the future European regulation still under way, Label Rouge poultry farmers had expressed concerns of a potential relaxation of labelling standards, which in their view ran the risk of “confusing the consumer”. The concerns were taken into account in a new draft of the regulation made public on February 22, which protects the “traditional free range” label designation.
by AFP | 28.Feb 2023 | Fact check
Social media users are claiming a video shows Joe Biden tumbling down the stairs as he disembarked from Air Force One upon arrival in Warsaw, Poland, on February 20, 2023. This is false; other footage shows the US president exiting the aircraft without incident and via a separate ramp, and the White House confirmed a different person fell.
by AFP | 22.Feb 2023 | Fact check
Eurosceptics have a new bugbear, claiming that Brussels has a clandestine plan to make people eat insects in a misinformation narrative flourishing on and offline.
by AFP | 21.Feb 2023 | Fact check
An article claims a photo shows a massive blood clot caused by Covid-19 vaccination. This is false; the picture predates the pandemic and is unrelated to vaccines.
by AFP | 13.Feb 2023 | Fact check
As Western countries pledged to step up deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, social media users in Thailand shared a fabricated quote that the European Union’s most senior diplomat Josep Borrell called to “keep using Ukrainians as our bait” in order to defeat Russia and “avenge Napoleon and Hitler”. While Borrell mentioned Napoleon and Hitler in a speech about the war in Ukraine, he was speaking in the context of Russia’s past military victories and did not say they should be “avenged”.
