On Wednesday 12 November, the European Commission presented its ‘European Democracy Shield’, which aims to “empower, protect, and promote strong and resilient democracies across the EU” (see 13759/15).
This ‘Shield’ focuses on three areas: - safeguarding the integrity of the information space; - strengthening institutions, fair and free elections, and free and independent media; - boosting societal resilience and citizens’ engagement.
One of the key elements of the Communication is the creation of a ‘European Centre for Democratic Resilience’, a framework “that will bring together the capabilities of the EU and its Member States (but also of candidate and potential candidate countries) to detect, deter and support the response to threats, in particular foreign interference, manipulation of information and disinformation”, explained the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and the Rule of Law, Michael McGrath.
This Centre, for which “many details are being studied”, according to a senior European official, will serve as a framework to facilitate information sharing and support capacity building.
The Commission also intends to prepare an incidents and crisis management protocol under the Digital Services Act (DSA), with the aim of facilitating coordination among relevant authorities and ensuring swift responses to large-scale and potentially transnational information operations.
“We will work with the signatories of the Code of Conduct on Disinformation to demonetise disinformation by eliminating the advertising revenue that rewards misleading content”, said Henna Virkunnen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy.
The Commission is also proposing to set up an independent European Network of Fact-Checkers in all the EU’s official languages. For its part, the European Digital Media Observatory will develop new independent monitoring and analytical capabilities for situational awareness on elections or crisis situations.
Finally, a master plan is expected to be drawn up with the Member States to combat the manipulation of information and disinformation, including foreign disinformation.
While the organisation and conduct of elections are the competence of the Member States, the Commission advocates strengthened cooperation at EU level by reinforcing the work carried out within the European Cooperation Network on Elections to improve the integrity and preparation of elections. Guidance on the “responsible” use of AI in electoral processes and the updating of the DSA Elections Toolkit have also been announced.
The Commission will also present a Recommendation and a guide of best practices in the Member States on the safety of political actors and will update its Recommendation on the safety of journalists.
The European Commission will also propose a Media Resilience Programme, which will strengthen financial support for independent and local journalism and examine, as part of next year’s review of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, ways to strengthen the prominence of media services of general interest and “modernise” advertising rules to foster the sustainability of EU media. It will step up its action to support the EU’s framework to combat abusive SLAPP suits.
Finally, the Commission will roll out measures to foster media and digital literacy. It will develop an EU citizenship competence framework and guidelines to strengthen citizenship education in schools and support citizens’ engagement in democratic life.
See the Communication: https://aeur.eu/f/je1
Positive first step. Nathalie Loiseau (Renew Europe, French), Chair of the European Parliament’s Special committee on the European Democracy Shield (EUDS), said she was convinced that the Communication was “a positive and necessary first step towards a democratically resilient Union”.
For its part, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) felt that while the right diagnosis had been made, the measures announced were not equal to the challenges, “particularly as regards the visibility of the media on platforms and, more generally, their sustainability”.
For RSF, it is essential that the Democratic Shield be followed by legislative measures. These should aim to: - require social network algorithms to increase the visibility of content from reliable sources of information by default; - introduce a digital levy on the major platforms, part of which would fund journalism in the public interest; - regulate services based on artificial intelligence. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)