A frustrating day for members of the European Parliament. Despite getting the founder and CEO of Facebook to answer their questions on how the company is using and protecting personal information, Mark Zuckerberg left them with few answers. CGTN'S Mariam Zaidi has more from Brussels.

Was this an opportunity missed? After much cajoling, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO agreed to testify before members of the European Parliament. MEPs saw this as their chance to get answers on subjects ranging from so-called fake news to protecting user data.

CLAUDE MORAES BRITISH SOCIALIST MEP "What you have in the EU is 252 million users. That is more than the USA. We have a week that he is coming and in which we are implementing the most modern EU data protection legislation. The most modern of any of its kind in the world."

The Facebook CEO began with an apology. And it wasn't just for the massive personal data breach of up to 87 million Facebook users at the hands of the private consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica.

MARK ZUCKERBERG FACEBOOK CEO "Fake news, foreign interference in elections, developers misusing people's information, we didn't take a broad enough view of our responsibility. It's our mistake, and I'm sorry for that."

After his apology came promises. Promises of more investment in AI technology to take down fake accounts. Promises to make it harder for the dissemination of fake news via Facebook. But his biggest promise was not just to comply with the EU's revamped data protection and privacy law, the EU General Data Protection Regulation that comes into force later this week. He said Facebook would go beyond that with new stringent tools.

MANFRED WEBER GERMAN MEP, EUROPEAN PEOPLE'S PARTY "You know that it's not enough. You said it. Now it's about acting. The implementation of the EU data rules going into force this week is an important step.”

SYED KAMALL BRITISH CONSERVATIVE MEP "Bureaucracy shouldn't starve innovation, but when businesses take advantage of their consumer, they come to us as politicians. They say don't just say something, do something.”

Despite the 20 or so questions from across the floor, Zuckerberg didn't provide clear answers, leaving MEPs frustrated.

GUY VERHOFSTADT BELGIAN LIBERAL MEP "We are so disappointed that we decided at the end to send a list of all questions that he didn't answer, and that we expect that in a few weeks, written answers to it. It is very clear that Facebook is organizing and functioning as a monopoly. in fact scrutinizing, controlling all our social contact on internet, and that is certainly not a healthy situation.”

MARIAM ZAIDI BRUSSELS "Mark Zuckerberg may have slipped through the grasp of MEPs for now. But with the EU's revamped data law, coming into play in just over two days time, legislators and regulators will be watching Facebook and other big social media giants like a hawk. They say companies need to grow up and put more controls in place if they want to continue operating in Europe. Mariam Zaidi, CGTN, Brussels."