Politics & Economics
The EU Democracy Shield against foreign interference to be forged by the end of 2025
By Editorial Staff
The European Commission’s new initiative against foreign interference, information manipulation, and disinformation in the context of the election, “Democracy Shield,” will be released by the end of 2025. The announcement came from the European Commissioner for the Rule of Law, Michael Mcgrath, on the sidelines of the General Affairs EU Council meeting held in Brussels on Tuesday.
The EU Executive has waited for the Ministers to give their insights on the proposal before launching the first session of the project group that President Ursula von der Leyen has explicitly created.
“Member States have shown awareness of the imperative that we all have to meet in protecting our democratic institutions, protecting free and fair elections using all of the tools at our disposal and look at what more we need to do and how we can cooperate better through the European cooperation network on elections,” Commissioner McGrath stated during a press conference after the EU Council meeting.
In Brussels, the annulment of the Romanian presidential election is a flashbulb of memory. On 6 December 2024, the Constitutional Court announced its decision to annul ‘the entire process to elect the Romanian president’ to ‘ensure the validity and legality’ of the vote. Around 25,000 TikTok accounts were allegedly used to increase the rightist candidate Călin Georgescu’s popularity, possibly using “bot farms.” On the day and night of the first round of the presidential elections, online attacks allegedly came from more than 30 states.
The European Commission launched formal proceedings under the Digital Services Act against TikTok for failing to adequately assess and mitigate systemic risks related to election integrity. The Commission will gather further information, and if it is found to be non-compliant with EU law, TikTok could face a fine of up to 6 percent of its global turnover.
“It is of fundamental importance to protect the integrity of elections, especially from foreign interference, and the Commission shares the sense of urgency in this matter and is committed to enhancing Europe’s resilience against external threats to our democratic processes,” Commissioner McGrath told journalists.
The democracy shield, as explained by the Irish top official, seeks to improve and deepen the work among Member States through a European cooperation network on elections while recognizing the autonomy and, of course, the competence of Member States to manage the conduct of elections within their own country.
The Commission is nevertheless not coming up with a predetermined outcome. A lot of work has been done so far, and some of the measures have already been agreed upon, McGrath highlighted while mentioning the political advertising regulation that will come into effect in October of this year and the Media Freedom Act, the principal elements of which will come into effect in August of this year.
Also, the final shape of the democracy shields is to be decided. The European Commissioner gave no anticipation on whether it would be a communication or a legislative package. It is a matter that needs to be balanced with the Member States’ competencies. “I want to engage widely; there would be consultation,” he said. The engagement of external bodies and stakeholders will start from the new special committee on the democracy shield created by the European Parliament.