#BeersPoliticsEU: "The EU Democracy Shield: Too late to mend the cracks or better late than never?"
#BeersPoliticsEU: “The EU Democracy Shield”
Too late to mend the cracks or better late than never?
Tuesday, 9 December 2025
18:00 – 19:00 (doors open at 17:30)
Commons Hub Brussels, Rue de la Madeleine 51, 1000 Brussels
Entrance is free. Participants are kindly asked to purchase a drink at the bar upon arrival to support the event.
Following the previous #BeersPoliticsEU session on defence, it has become increasingly clear that Europe is facing a hybrid pre‑war on multiple fronts, with coordinated attacks coming both from within and from outside the Union. In December last year, a special committee on the European Democracy Shield (EUDS) was set up to provide input to the European Commission on the future mechanism announced by President Ursula von der Leyen in her political guidelines.
The new European Democracy Shield will be led by the EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath. It is intended as a comprehensive shield against disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI), protecting the fairness and integrity of elections, safeguarding political candidates and journalists, and strengthening civic dialogue and the defence of fundamental rights across the Union.
At the same time, the sophistication of cyber attacks and deep political schisms pulling Europeans towards the extremes raise doubts about whether the EU and its Member States are sufficiently equipped to deal with FIMI. Not all threats come from abroad: internal actors and domestic polarisation also contribute to the erosion of trust. This session of #BeersPoliticsEU will take a closer look at what the Democracy Shield can realistically deliver in this complex environment.
The event will be moderated by Harold TOR‑DAENENS, Senior EU Affairs Expert at Hyperion Tree Digital and policy advisor at LEVA‑EU, organiser of #BeersPoliticsEU.
Key questions for discussion
- What exactly will the European Democracy Shield do and how will it fight foreign interference while protecting European democracies?
- What can the new European Centre for Democratic Resilience achieve that existing instruments have not yet delivered?
- What are the biggest strengths and weaknesses of the current proposal?
- We have been talking about disinformation for over a decade, yet media literacy in identifying fake news remains low. How can the Democracy Shield change that?
- Can the Democracy Shield help mend divisions created by internal actors? What can the “Recommendation and guide of best practices in the Member States on the safety of political actors” concretely do?
- Increasingly, media independence is under pressure. How can the “Recommendation on the Safety of Journalists” effectively protect journalists?
Speakers
About #BeersPoliticsEU
#BeersPoliticsEU is a renowned voluntary monthly meetup created by Harold Tor‑Daenens, bringing together EU professionals and ordinary citizens to talk about EU policies and European politics. It is one of the very few informal policy‑discussion formats in Brussels that allows people in and outside the “EU bubble” to meet and exchange without institutional, sectoral or political baggage.
The format is intentionally simple: a speaker or a panel speaks for at most one hour, with no PowerPoint allowed. Anyone in the room may interrupt with a question at any moment, and if needed, the session can be extended by up to 30 minutes of Q&A. Participants are invited to join the conversation online and tag the event using #BeersPoliticsEU on all social media platforms.
Transparency – This event is organised by a stakeholder registered in the EU Transparency Register , contributing to openness and public scrutiny in EU policymaking.
Recruteur
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