Michael McGrath is expected to announce the launch of a European Centre for Democratic Resilience later today as the centrepiece of his efforts to protect European democracy from disinformation and fake news.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tasked Ireland’s European Commissioner with creating the so-called European Democracy Shield.
The shield is supposed to bring together different EU laws and bodies to better protect European democracies and stop elections being undermined.
“European democracy is precious. We should never take it for granted and we have to continue to invest in it and to nurture it”, he said, speaking from his office in Brussels.
“I think European democracy is strong overall, but we are facing challenges and threats, both from inside the European Union but also attempts from outside the EU to interfere in the European democratic system…ultimately with a view to undermining trust in European democratic institutions and with the goal of influencing elections.”
How will the Democracy Shield work?
“The Shield will seek to do is to strengthen the democratic institutions and the elections that take place within the European Union and build on very solid foundations of having a free and independent media”, he said.
At its heart will be a new European Centre for Democratic Resilience, a dedicated unit to combatting disinformation.
“We are witnessing of foreign information manipulation and interference and disinformation”, said McGrath, the European Commission for Democracy, Justice, Rule of Law and Consumer Protection.
“Coordination will be at the very heart of the work of this new centre and it will be a European centre. It will ensure that some of the best practises that are available in some member states at the moment are made available throughout the European Union because the truth is that there are different structures and different capabilities available throughout the European Union.”
Several EU member states already have national institution trying to do this work. For obvious reasons they work mainly under the radar.
Probably most well known is the French agency, Viginum.
Earlier this year, it warned that Europe was under attack from disinformation in both Russia and the US.
McGrath is hoping that the new European centre will bring together expertise from agencies like Viginum.
“We believe it is crucial that we have at the centre of the European Union, a resource that is available to everyone and available to every member state in the European Union to both detect but also respond to attempts at interference in our democratic system.”
But it is not clear how much weight or funding the new centre will get.
“It will not be an EU agency, it will be a European centre and the centre will build on existing structures with a view to bring together all of the expertise and capacity across the member states and neighbouring countries”, McGrath said.
“We will further develop this over time but it’s important we make a start now that we establish this centre that we ensure that the capability and best practise that is in parts of the European Union is made available to everybody because the truth is that these threats are inherently cross-border in nature.”