EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, has announced the drafting of a new defense strategy aimed at protecting European Union candidate countries from foreign malicious interference, hybrid threats, information manipulation, and disinformation—particularly during election cycles.
Center for Democratic Resilience (2027)
To strengthen the defense infrastructure of the six Western Balkan candidate nations, the European Commission is preparing to launch a dedicated protective center:
- Launch Date: Early 2027.
- Key Focus Areas: Monitoring artificial intelligence in political campaigns, ensuring voting security, and building local institutional resilience.
- Next Political Meeting: The platform for this center will be discussed at a political level on September 4 during a meeting between top EU diplomats and candidate countries.
The Case of Montenegro and “Reactionary Attacks”
According to Commissioner Kos, as candidate nations make progress toward final EU accession, disinformation campaigns by foreign actors become significantly more aggressive:
Marta Kos: “Montenegro asked for our help the day after we announced that we had established a working group to prepare their accession treaty. The next day, the number of hybrid attacks surged, and since then, we have seen increasingly aggressive disinformation targeted against Montenegro’s path toward the EU.”
Targeted Awareness Campaigns Within EU Member States
Beyond shielding candidate countries, the European Commission has launched targeted engagement campaigns inside EU member states where public support for enlargement falls below 50% (specifically targeting France). The objective is to build public support within the EU so that candidate nations that fulfill all requirements are not blocked at the final approval stage.
