Disinformation and Propaganda: Impact on the Functioning of the Rule of Law and Democratic Processes in the EU — 2021 Update (EXPO_STU(2021)653633)

Commissioned by the INGE Special Committee, this 2021 update maps the disinformation landscape across 2019–2021 and its impact on democratic processes and the rule of law in EU member states. The study's most important analytical contribution is its documentation of the merging of disinformation with genuine political content — the blurring of the line between foreign manipulation and domestic political communication that makes both detection and regulatory response so difficult.

The legislative recommendations developed in this study fed directly into the INGE committee's deliberations and shaped the subsequent EU legislative agenda. For practitioners who need to understand the analytical foundations of current EU counter-disinformation law — why particular regulatory choices were made, what evidence informed them, and where the drafters acknowledged uncertainty — this study is essential reading.