Viral claim European Democratic Shield can void national elections incorrect
There is no mechanism in place for the European Democracy Shield to annul elections
CLAIM
Claims are spreading on social media that a recently established European Union special committee to oversee an initiative on “information integrity” — the European Democratic Shield — will have the power to void elections in EU countries.
BACKGROUND
On December 18, the EU parliament voted to establish a special committee on the European Democracy Shield — an initiative to safeguard “information integrity” to protect against foreign election meddling. The vote came just four days after Romania became the first EU country to void the result of the first round of the presidential election over alleged foreign interference.
The poll saw far-right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu claim a shock victory and was controversially voided by Romania’s Constitutional Court over alleged Russian interference.
On February 3, a post on X by French far-right politician Florian Philippot, who founded the nationalist and Eurosceptic party The Patriots, described the European Democratic Shield as “a supranational body which will allow, as in Romania, the cancellation of elections during the process if the result displeases the EU!”
He went on: “Under the pretext of ‘interference’ (on the part of #Russie and #Musk of course), therefore ‘for our own good’ obviously”
Philippot has a following of over 483,000 users on X and the post was shared more than 5,700 times.
Another X account posting about Romania with a following of over 90,000 user also shared the claim, prompting thousands of interactions, including over 8,8000 shares.
METHOD
The Spanish X account of the European Commission issued a post on February 6 rejecting the claim, saying: “No, the European Commission does not interfere in national elections. These are governed by rules and procedures for which each Member State is responsible.”
It also linked to a European Commission document published on January 7 about the establishment of the committee to deliver EDS. The document outlines the remit of the group, including assessing EU legislation on interference in the democratic process and advising on actions in relation to threats and attacks. It makes no mention of any remit to interfere with EU countries’ electoral process.
A briefing paper published last December further elaborated on the role of the EDS:
“First announced in July 2024, the democracy shield initiative links existing work to counter foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) with the implementation of key legislation and initiatives to boost the health of the information sphere. This includes regulation of online platforms and search engines in the Digital Services Act (DSA), including the 2022 strengthened code of practice to make online platforms do more to curb information manipulation and hate speech, and the work of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) and its regional hubs. It also includes the AI Act, with its risk-based approach to regulating AI, including generative AI-facilitated information manipulation such as deepfakes, the European Media Freedom Act, and the Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising.”
It also said that the initiative’s key tasks in relation to “information integrity” are:
• stepping up the fight against foreign information manipulation and interference;
• coordinating the work on disinformation and working with other Commissioners to boost the work on digital and media literacy and on prevention through pre-bunking;
• protecting integrity of elections;
• working with Parliament and the Council to reach agreement on proposals still on the table, such as on European political parties and foundations;
• implementing the European Media Freedom Act and putting forward proposals to further support and protect independent media and journalists, building on the work done to protect them from abusive lawsuits (SLAPPs).”
RATING
The claim that the European Democracy Shield initiative will have the power to annul elections is incorrect. There is no mechanism in place for the European Democracy Shield to annul elections.
SOURCES
Bentzen, N. (2024). Information integrity online and the European democracy shield. [online] European Parliament. European Parliamentary Research Service. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2024/767153/EPRS_BRI(2024)767153_EN.pdf [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].
European Commission (2025). DECISION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION of 7.1.2025 on the establishment of a Commissioners’ Project Group on Democracy. Available at: https://commission.europa.eu/publications/decisions-establishment-commissioners-project-groups_en [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].
Starcevic, S. (2025). Romanian far-right chief’s bid to reinstate election result fails in European court. [online] POLITICO. Available at: https://www.politico.eu/article/european-court-of-human-rights-slaps-down-romania-far-right-candidate-calin-georgescu-bid-to-reinstate-canceled-election/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: Alerte dictature ! C’est aujourd’hui que l’UE annonce sa Commission qui… [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: No, la Comisión Europea no interfiere en las elecciones nacionales. Estas...[Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: URGENT: Yesterday, the EU announced the creation of the “European Democracy… (EDS) [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].