The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the European Democracy Shield, calling for stronger EU action to counter foreign interference, disinformation and threats to democratic processes. The resolution emphasises the role of independent civil society in protecting democracy and calls for stronger civil dialogue, sustainable funding and meaningful involvement of CSOs in EU initiatives. It supports the European Centre for Democratic Resilience and calls for ambitious and predictable funding for civil society under the proposed AgoraEU programme. Importantly for enlargement countries, Parliament encourages the Commission to involve CSOs from candidate and potential candidate countries in initiatives under the EU Strategy for Civil Society. However, the resolution also raises concerns about the potential misuse of CSOs by foreign actors, while stressing that transparency measures must not stigmatise legitimate civil society activities. Find the resolution here.
Source: European Parliament