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Under the leadership of European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection Micheal McGrath, a hybrid threat hub, called the ‘European Centre for Democratic Resilience’, is being created. The new center is part of the EU’s ‘European Democracy Shield’ initiative and will be tasked with organizing defense against hybrid attacks, mainly from Russia, including foreign disinformation attacks and foreign interference in European elections.
The center will function as a hub for sharing information between EU countries and institutions. Its secretariat will be located in the Commission’s communications directorate, DG COMM. The center will be staffed by Commissioner Micheal McGrath’s team. The new structure will cooperate with European Commission bodies responsible for justice, digital and foreign policy. It will work closely with existing structures and networks relevant to hybrid threats, including through the so-called “rapid alert system”, which allows Europe’s External Action Services (EEAS) to liaise with EU institutions and member states in the fight against disinformation campaigns.
The center will be open to cooperation with EU candidate countries or other interested parties outside Europe.
Work on the establishment of the center is well underway, with the first technical meeting of high-level representatives of member states and European institutions having already taken place. The official launch of the center will be announced on 24 February, in the framework of the General Affairs Council.
Comment: The establishment of the European Centre for Democratic Resilience aims to improve the coordination of expertise, improve early warning systems and strengthen Europe’s collective capacity to anticipate and respond to hybrid threats.
The Centre will be part of the wider set of structures, mechanisms and frameworks that together form the EU’s overall response to hybrid threats – such as the EU Hybrid Toolbox, Hybrid Rapid Response Teams, Horizontal Working Party on Enhancing Resilience and Countering Hybrid Threats, Integrated Political Crisis Response, the Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference toolbox, the Hybrid Fusion Cell within EU INTCEN (part of the EEAS), etc.
At this stage, the Centre appears to have a limited mandate and budget, with no clear mechanism for interaction with partners outside the EU and the European region. This raises questions about its place in the EU system for combating elusive hybrid threats.
The new Commission’s unit faces the challenge of finding its place as an authoritative structure trying to combat disinformation. The EEAS already has a counter-propaganda cell called EUvsDisinfo.
It is important for EU Member States not to propose structures that duplicate existing ones, whose work, however, needs to be improved. Italy and Germany stressed in January their commitment to strengthening the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, which is among the international organizations the United States has withdrawn from, citing them as “wasteful, ineffective and harmful.” Rome and Berlin also pushed for strengthening the EU’s intelligence-sharing capacity, in particular the Hybrid Fusion Cell within the EU INTCEN.
