Patriots for Europe: The European Democracy Shield is Becoming a Shield Against Democratic Dissent

Brussels, 23/06/2026 - Patriots for Europe regrets the adoption of the European Democracy Shield report by the European Parliament's Special Committee on the European Democracy Shield (EUDS).

We support empowering sovereign Member States to protect democratic institutions and free elections from foreign interference and other unlawful threats.

The report adopted today, however, moves in a different direction. It expands the role of unelected actors, gives privileged status to fact-checking networks and promotes a greater role for EU-funded NGOs without ensuring proper transparency and accountability. At the same time, it relies on vague concepts such as “disinformation” and “harmful content”, which can easily be used to limit legitimate public debate.

The people most affected by these measures will not be politicians or institutions, but ordinary Europeans. The freedom to question, criticise and challenge those in power is at the heart of democracy. Yet this report places growing influence over public debate in the hands of actors who have no direct democratic mandate. In doing so, it risks betraying the very citizens it claims to protect.

It is particularly telling that proposals aimed at increasing transparency in NGO funding and strengthening democratic accountability were not even put to a vote.

For a committee tasked with defending democracy, refusing Members the opportunity to vote on such basic principles is a remarkable contradiction. For these reasons, Patriots for Europe cannot support this report. The fact that Members were denied the opportunity to vote on many of the concerns raised by our group has led us to submit a written minority opinion to the committee's record. Patriots for Europe will continue to defend freedom of expression, democratic accountability and the sovereignty of Member States.