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Upholding the rule of law

In an increasingly unstable and polarised world, it is vital that democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law be proactively defended and upheld, in the EU and beyond. The 2024 Rule of Law Report, as a preventive tool, made an important contribution to this, showing that 68 % of the recommendations issued to Member States in 2023 had been fully or partially addressed. This reflects the significant efforts that are ongoing in the Member States to undertake the necessary reforms to strengthen the rule of law in key areas such as the justice system, the anti-corruption frameworks, media pluralism and freedom, and institutional checks and balances. The 2024 report was extended to four enlargement countries (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) to support their reform efforts. The report provides the basis for regular dialogue among ministers in the General Affairs Council and among Members of the European Parliament. The Commission is also organising national rule-of-law dialogues with stakeholders in the Member States.

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Video: Collaborating on the rule of law report

Another important EU tool to protect the rule of law against breaches by Member States is the possibility to reactively trigger Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union. This procedure, which can ultimately result in the suspension of membership rights, was initiated against Poland in 2017 and Hungary in 2018. In 2024, the procedure was closed for Poland after the country introduced substantial measures to protect judicial independence and renewed its commitment to address the serious rule-of-law concerns through a dedicated action plan. This led the Commission to conclude that there was no longer a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland. The procedure remains open for Hungary.

Defending democracy

In a healthy and thriving democracy, citizens can freely express their views, choose their political leaders and have a say about their future. Democracy in the EU is strong, but it faces challenges, such as rising extremism; election interference; the spread of manipulative information; and threats against journalists, media freedom and pluralism. The defence of democracy package, adopted at the end of 2023, aims to address challenges such as foreign interference and to build resilience from within by encouraging civic engagement and democratic participation. A key element of the package is the proposal to enhance transparency and democratic accountability by shedding light on covert foreign influence. In 2024, the Parliament and the Council started discussing this proposal. The measures will also improve the functioning of the Single Market through common standards for interest-representation activities carried out on behalf of non-EU countries.

In addition, the package includes two recommendations: one to strengthen electoral processes in the EU and another to promote the inclusive participation of citizens and civil society in policymaking. In line with the first recommendation, a Code of Conduct for the 2024 European Parliament elections was developed and presented in April to ensure the integrity of the elections and fair campaigning. The comprehensive checklist was agreed to by all European political parties, enhancing the efforts to prevent foreign interference and information manipulation.

Similarly, the new rules on the transparency of political advertising, adopted in March, will support accountability in the use of political ads, protect fundamental rights and help counter information manipulation and foreign interference in elections. Under the new rules, political adverts will need to be clearly labelled and must include information such as who paid for them and how much; to which election, referendum or regulatory process they are linked; and whether they are targeted.

In 2024, the EU continued to protect and promote human rights worldwide. For example, under the Human Rights and Democracy Thematic Programme (amounting to €1.5 billion), the EU supported the Global Initiative Against Impunity, a civil-society-led initiative against international crimes and serious human rights violations.

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The Venezuelan opposition’s presidential candidate María Corina Machado and the leader of Venezuela’s democratic forces Edmundo González Urrutia, from Venezuela, won the 2024 Sakharov Prize. Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, 10 July 2024.

The 2024 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought – the highest tribute paid by the EU to human rights work – was awarded to María Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia for their brave fight to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela.

Media freedom

Independent media act as a public watchdog, holding those in power accountable. They are a key pillar of European democracy and must be protected. The European Media Freedom Act, which entered into force in May, aims to better protect media and journalists against political interference and to ensure that they can operate more easily across borders. Most of its provisions will start to apply as of August 2025.

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8 projects funded through the Journalism Partnerships action of the Creative Europe programme.

€12 million to support the resilience of the news media sector.

€6 million earmarked for other projects to enhance media freedom and pluralism in the EU.

In April, the EU also adopted new rules to protect journalists and human rights defenders against abusive lawsuits meant to silence them. The rules aim to prevent unfounded or abusive legal actions, known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs, that aim to silence those participating in public debate on matters such as fundamental rights, the environment and public access to information. For the first time ever, a system of powerful procedural safeguards for cross-border cases are in place. These safeguards will equip courts to deal with abusive litigation, and will also deter potential claimants from engaging in such practices. Work also continued on the implementation of the related Anti-SLAPP Recommendation, covering applicable frameworks, training, awareness raising and support mechanisms, along with data collection, reporting and monitoring.

Countering information manipulation

The EU institutions are strengthening their response to disinformation and to foreign information manipulation and interference targeting EU policies and European democracy.

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Action is centred around four key areas

1. Developing policies to strengthen European democracies, making it more difficult for disinformation actors to misuse online platforms and protecting journalists and media pluralism.
2. Countering foreign interference and cyberattacks through awareness-raising projects, advanced technological solutions and improved coordination.
3. Building societal resilience against disinformation through media literacy and awareness raising.
4. Cooperating with institutions, national authorities, civil society and other organisations.

In 2024, efforts included raising situational awareness via the Integrated Political Crisis Response mechanism and dedicated campaigns targeting citizens.

With half of the world’s population having the opportunity to go to the polls in 72 countries in 2024 – the biggest election year in history – particular focus was placed on strengthening awareness raising and protecting election integrity, especially linked to the European elections in June.

The European Cooperation Network on Elections held a number of events to exchange practices to combat disinformation.

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Video: Decode the Lies: How to Safeguard Yourself Against Deceptive Content this EU election season

Ahead of the European elections, the Commission launched a joint communication campaign with the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services to inform citizens about the related risks, encouraging critical thinking and providing practical tips on how to spot and tackle disinformation.

In March, the Commission published guidelines on recommended measures for very large online platforms and search engines to mitigate systemic risks that may impact the integrity of elections. A post-election report published in July found no evidence of any major disinformation or foreign interference in the European elections. A comprehensive report on the elections will follow in 2025.

The major online platforms and signatories to the Code of Practice on Disinformation reported on the measures they had taken to protect the integrity of the European elections. These included requiring advertisers or creators to clearly label any image, video or audio file that had been digitally created or altered; cooperating with fact-checking organisations; promoting high-quality and authoritative information to voters; and developing targeted media literacy and pre-bunking campaigns.

During the year, the Commission renewed its support for important initiatives to counter disinformation, namely the European Digital Media Observatory hubs. The observatory and its hubs played a key role in monitoring and exposing disinformation campaigns, raising awareness and promoting media literacy in advance of the European elections.

The EU continues to support Ukraine’s information resilience and outreach towards global partners, notably to promote Ukraine’s Peace Formula. To do this, the EU uses a whole-of-society approach, working with government institutions, civil society, media organisations and online platforms. To help curtail the reach of Russian information manipulation and propaganda, the EU has suspended the broadcasting activities of numerous Russian state-owned and pro-Kremlin disinformation outlets. With the entry into force of the Digital Services Act, providers of very large online platforms and search engines need to evaluate the potential societal risks posed by their services. These include threats to freedom of expression and the risk of their services being used for disinformation campaigns.

Regular exchanges on the Ukraine war continue with signatories to the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation. The European Digital Media Observatory and its national and regional hubs continue to monitor and debunk war-related disinformation, including tracking its share of the total volume of disinformation circulating in the EU. This is complemented by wider efforts to fight disinformation, such as the EUvsDisinfo campaign, which is estimated to have reached over 20 million people in 2024, and the Rapid Alert System, which facilitates the sharing of insights related to disinformation campaigns and helps coordinate responses.

Empowering citizens

The EU is committed to listening closely to citizens and stakeholders and opening up policymaking processes to the public. This is another way to help the EU become more transparent, accountable and effective. The Have Your Say hub offers citizens and stakeholders access to the three main channels for citizen engagement: public consultations and feedback; the European Citizens’ Initiative; and the European Citizens’ Panels. As of 2024, citizens can also actively engage with one another, civil society and other stakeholders via the Citizens’ Engagement Platform.

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Citizen engagement in 2024

27 PUBLIC CONSULTATIONS LAUNCHED

FEEDBACK ON:

60 calls for evidence documents,

12 legislative proposals,

131 draft implementing and delegated acts.

30 000 REPLIES/COMMENTS RECEIVED FROM CITIZENS AND INTERESTED PARTIES

11 NEW EUROPEAN CITIZENS’ INITIATIVES REGISTERED

They called for action in various areas: agriculture, food and water security; safe abortion; consumer rights of video gamers; etc.

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A still from one of the winning entries for the ImagineEU video competition for secondary schools to promote democratic participation and the European Citizen Initiative, which enables citizens to invite the Commission to submit a proposal for a legal act if enough citizens support the initiative.

2 EUROPEAN CITIZENS’ PANELS ON:

how to tackle hatred in society, resulting in 21 recommendations;

how to bring benefits of energy efficiency to citizens, public authorities and enterprises, resulting in 13 recommendations.

Both sets of recommendations will contribute to shaping future EU initiatives.

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Some of the 150 randomly selected citizens participating in the European Citizens’ Panel on energy efficiency, 14 April 2024, Brussels, Belgium. The Citizens’ Panels are becoming a regular feature of democratic life in the EU. Special care is taken to ensure that the panels are representative of the EU population and diverse enough to reflect a wide variety of perspectives and opinions.

The EU Prize for Citizen Science connects science with society, encourages public involvement and builds trust in scientific progress. This year it was awarded to three projects, focusing on marine pollution, agricultural biodiversity and mental health.

Grand Prize, €60 000

INCREASE, for advancing knowledge on seed preservation through the empowerment of civil society and citizens, in particular in rural areas.

Digital Communities prize, €20 000

CoAct for Mental Health, for its use of digital technologies to develop a personalised approach and improve quality of life for people facing mental health problems.

Diversity & Collaboration prize, €20 000

SeaPaCS – Participatory Citizen Science against Marine Pollution, for producing transformative knowledge that filled the existing cognitive and emotional gaps between society and the sea.

Empowering consumers

Thanks to the EU’s consumer protection rules, consumers are well protected and entitled to receive clear information on the products and services they are buying. As of 13 December, new rules ensure that all non-food products on the EU market are safe by design. The new rules seek to address major societal and market changes that have affected consumer product safety in the past two decades and to better ensure that all kinds of products are safe, whether they are sold offline or online. Furthermore, new rules will empower consumers for the green transition, allowing them to choose longer-lasting and more repairable products (see Chapter 4).

Empowering children and young people

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Margaritis Schinas, Vice-President of the European Commission hosting a Youth Policy Dialogue on the European way of Life, underscoring the EU’s commitment to promoting democracy, human rights and solidarity, 9 April 2024, Brussels, Belgium.

To become active citizens, young people need to understand how democracy works and what their rights and responsibilities are. They also need to be given specific tools to engage with decision-makers. With this in mind, the Youth Policy Dialogues and the Youth Sounding Board offer the possibility for young adults to make their voices heard, while the EU’s Children’s Participation Platform provides a safe space for 10–17-year-olds to have their say on the European laws and policies that concern them. In 2024, more than 1 000 children were actively consulted on the Recommendation on Integrated Child Protection Systems.

During the year, the EU announced 60 measures that will give young people a greater say in the decisions that affect them and deepen the youth dimension in a range of EU policies. One of these measures is the ‘youth check’ to ensure that the impact on young people is systematically factored in when designing new EU policies.

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What do children think about democracy?

CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS WOULD LIKE:

• a bigger role in influencing decisions that directly affect their lives;
• more information about the democratic process and encouragement to take part in it.

Source: Survey on democratic participation, spring 2024.

1 921 children from 23 Member States answered the online survey.

28 children and 3 young activists were interviewed.

122 children participated in focus groups.

Citizens of all ages and backgrounds should play a leading and active part in setting the priorities for and the level of ambition of the EU’s policies. The more they participate in designing policy, the more effective and efficient EU laws will be in making a difference to people’s lives. This is why the EU institutions have been actively working on giving Europeans a stronger role in EU policymaking, and will continue to do so under the new political cycle (see Chapter 0).

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