European Democracy Action Plan (COM(2020) 790)

The European Democracy Action Plan is the foundational EU policy document establishing the Commission's integrated approach to protecting democratic institutions from disinformation, foreign interference, and the erosion of media freedom. Published in December 2020, it sets out the legislative and non-legislative agenda that would produce the Digital Services Act, the revised Code of Practice on Disinformation, the Media Freedom Act, and enhanced election integrity measures.

For anyone working on EU democratic resilience policy, the EDAP is the primary reference document. It establishes the conceptual framework — treating disinformation, foreign interference, and media plurality as interconnected threats to democratic governance — that shapes subsequent EU legislation and institutional architecture. Understanding the EDAP is a prerequisite for understanding why EU counter-disinformation policy takes the form it does: it is not primarily a security response but a democratic governance response, which explains both its strengths and its limitations.