§1.2 Input for guidelines and related policy initiatives

8. These guidelines build upon a series of readiness dialogues on election integrity carried out by the Commission with several providers of VLOPs and VLOSEs after Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 entered into application for the first 19 designated services at the end of August 2023 (7), in cooperation with relevant national authorities. For the preparation of the final version of these guidelines, the Commission organised an exploratory consultation (8), which was published on 8 February 2024 and closed on 7 March 2024, as well as targeted consultations in the form of round table exchanges, including with Civil Society organisations and providers of VLOPs and VLOSEs on a draft version of the guidelines. In addition, in finalising the guidelines, the Commission cooperated with the Digital Services Coordinators through meetings of the European Board for Digital Services. 9. To the extent relevant for compliance of VLOPs and VLOSEs with Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the guidelines also reflect several commitments and measures to reduce the spread of online disinformation contained in the Code of Practice on Disinformation (9), the first worldwide industry-led framework in the digital field and a source of industry best practices to address disinformation. They also take into account the work done by the EU’s institutions and the Member States on foreign information manipulation and interference (“FIMI”), notably the comprehensive framework provided by the EU FIMI Toolbox and the recent European External Action Service (EEAS) Report on FIMI Threats (10) focusing on responses to FIMI in the context of elections. 10. These guidelines complement the Commission’s policies in the field of democracy and free, fair and resilient elections, including the 2020 European democracy action plan (11), the elections and integrity package presented by the Commission in 2021 (12) and recently the 2023 Defence of Democracy package (13), and the work of the European Cooperation Network on elections (14) to foster cooperation among national electoral networks of competent authorities. The Defence of Democracy package includes, among others, extensive recommendations to Member States, and national and European political parties, political foundations, and campaign organisations on inclusive and resilient electoral processes in the EU and enhancing the European nature and efficient conduct of the elections to the European Parliament (15). As indicated in these recommendations, the Commission will report on the conduct of the European Parliamentary elections. The Commission’s Communication on Defence of Democracy also provides an assessment of risks to electoral processes and the civic discourse from the perspective among others of the implementation of the European Democracy Action Plan and should be taken into account (16).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07