European Centre for Democratic Resilience

Overview

The European Centre for Democratic Resilience is a new hub for exchange between EU institutions, Member States and civil society to empower, protect, and promote strong and resilient democracies across the EU.

The Centre is a core component of the European Democracy Shield, which defines a broad, society-wide approach to strengthening democracy.

In focus

The European Centre for Democratic Resilience starts its work

24 February 2026 - At the meeting of the General Affairs Council, Democracy and Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath met EU Ministers to discuss how the Centre can facilitate the sharing of expertise and experience and support the development of effective responses to common threats, to deliver tangible results for citizens.

With the launch of the Centre, the European Union takes a further step to reinforce democratic resilience, protect the integrity of public debate and strengthen trust in Europe's democratic systems.

What is the role of the Centre?

The Centre brings together its members’ expertise and resources to increase collective capacity to anticipate, detect and respond to threats to our democracies, such as foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) and disinformation.

It will serve as a framework for exchange and operational cooperation and coordination among participating Member States, EU candidate countries and potential candidates, and EU institutions.

A stakeholder platform for independent stakeholders (such as civil society organisations, researchers and academia, etc.) will also support the work of the Centre by sharing expertise and research, as well as encouraging exchanges.

Objectives

Improve situational awareness and the capacity to detect and anticipate threats
Develop robust and well-coordinated approaches to early warnings and strengthen rapid response capacity
Prepare and empower citizens, civil society and institutions to withstand threats, by building resilience to FIMI and disinformation, and contribute to broader whole-of-society democratic resilience

Who is involved?

The Centre encourages broad participation from EU institutions and bodies, Member States, and EU candidate countries and potential candidates, as well as independent stakeholders via the stakeholder platform.