Brussels, 16 February 2023
The Commission is today launching a public consultation on the upcoming initiative on the ‘Defence of Democracy’, which President von der Leyen announced in her 2022 State of the Union Address. The consultation, open until 13 April 2023, will gather views of different stakeholders on what is needed to protect the EU democratic sphere from foreign interference and bolster democratic resilience.
The public consultation will be available in all EU languages. It will feed into the ‘Defence of Democracy’ initiative, which the Commission aims to put forward before the summer 2023. This initiative will include a concrete legislative initiative to protect our democracies from entities funded by or linked to third countries and exercising economic activities in the EU that may impact public opinion and the democratic sphere. It will also aim to promote free and fair elections, to strengthen civil society and civic engagement, and to review measures already taken at EU level under the European Democracy Action Plan.
Source – EU Commission