BRUSSELS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday that criticism of liberties in the bloc should be aimed elsewhere and at "Russia perhaps", referring to a White House strategy document critical of EU policies.
"The European Union is the very essence of freedom," Kallas said, addressing a European Parliament committee.
"Criticism regarding the liberties here should be aimed at different direction. Russia perhaps, where dissent is banned, where free media is banned, where political opposition is banned, where X or Twitter, as we know it, is, in fact, also banned" she said, also referring to criticism from U.S. officials after EU tech regulators imposed a fine on social platform X last week.
Asked about American criticism, Kallas said that "it seems to me it is made to be a provocation".
Kallas also reiterated that the United States remains Europe's biggest ally.
(Reporting by Lili Bayer and Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Hugh Lawson)
