Michael McGrath

We're looking to protect one of the most precious things we have in the European Union, and that is our democracy.

It has been hard won.

There are many member states of the European Union that just 35 years ago were not democracies.

We need to ensure that our elections are free and fair, that they are free from any external or indeed internal interference.

And fundamentally, what we are seeking to achieve here is that European citizens can vote.

exercise their democratic entitlement in free and fair elections and in a manner that is not subject to any interference.

And so that's why we will be proposing, for example, the European Centre for Democratic Resilience that President von der Leyen first announced in her State of the Union address back in September.

And we'll be fleshing out in a little more detail tomorrow when we publish the proposals, the precise role of this new centre.

But overall, it is going to be a multifaceted approach because we have to protect the foundations of democracy.

That means investing in a free and independent and plural media sector.

It's also about supporting our civil society, but also ensuring that our citizens are given the tools that they need to navigate what is a very complex information environment at the moment.

So investment in media literacy, digital literacy, supporting our citizens in accessing the information that they need to make up their own mind about who they wish to have represent them at a local, national and indeed a European level.

We already have an extensive body of media.

and a toolbox there that we can use.

For example, the Digital Services Act imposes quite strict obligations on the in-scope platforms in relation to protecting electoral integrity and making sure that the content that is disseminated on their platforms does not in any way impact negatively on

the integrity of the electoral processes within the European Union.

We also have the AI Act, which is progressively coming into force.

So what we are going to propose tomorrow will very much complement the existing legislative toolbox that we have, but it will provide more capacity and bandwidth.

And what this new centre will do essentially is coordinate the work that is happening between the EU institutions,

the member state authorities and other stakeholders to monitor, to detect and to respond to any incidences of foreign information manipulation, interference and disinformation.