Defence of Democracy Package
On the 27th of November, Civil Society Europe, together with the European Partnership for Democracy, the Good Lobby and Transparency International EU, held a press conference on the Defence of Democracy (DoD) Package and the controversial proposal within it for a Directive creating a registry of foreign-funded NGOs. While the civil society organisations (CSOs) share the need to ensure that internal and external malign interference is tackled, they take issue with the proposed Directive in terms of legal basis, compliance with international norms and EU law, as well as effectiveness in tackling the problem. Instead, the CSOs propose an ‘Interest Representatives Act’ that would cover all interest service representatives in the Union, addressing both internal and external funding.
Read the press release here.
On the 12th of December, the European Commission (EC) presented the DoD Package. It consists of a proposed Directive on common rules for the registration of organisations that receive foreign funding, an EC recommendation on citizens and civil society’s involvement in policymaking, and an EC recommendation on strengthening the guarantees of fairness of electoral processes in the EU.
While some elements of the DoD Package are positive, notably the recommendations on citizens and civil society’s involvement, the proposed Directive is seen as highly problematic by civil society for the aforementioned reasons, including effectiveness in tackling the problem of malign foreign intervention in EU democratic processes.
Read CSE’s reaction here.
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