In a ceremony on Tuesday, all political party groups signed a code of conduct on upholding ethical and fair campaign practices in the EU and protect the integrity of the upcoming European parliament elections in June.
The signing ceremony was hosted by Commission Vice-President Vera Jourová who had initiated the code in cooperation with the Stockholm based International IDEA, an institute for democracy and electoral assistance.
The code, developed in consultation with the European political parties, was signed by Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, European Christian Political Movement, European Conservatives and Reformists Party, European Democratic Party, European Free Alliance, European Green Party, European People's Party, Party of European Socialist and Party of the European Left.
The far-right party group ‘Identity and Democracy’ had declared that they will also join the Code of Conduct for the 2024 European Parliament elections. In fact, it turned out that they also signed the Code but off camera. The group has ca 8 % of the total seats in the current parliament, the majority coming from Italy’s Lega party (23), the Rassemblement National in France (18) and Germany’s AfD (9).
One of the 14 commitments of the Code is that signatories will “encourage inclusive political discourse and participation by refraining from producing, using or disseminating discriminatory statements and biases against specific groups based on their gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation”.
Another example is the parties' commitment to “refrain from running political ads sponsored by undeclared interests or otherwise engaging intermediaries to place campaign messages without attribution”.
"The Code of Conduct complements the existing election frameworks at the European and national levels," says Dr Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary-General of International IDEA. "It helps preserve core values in elections such as transparency, accountability, fair play, voter privacy, and freedom of expression."
Most important commitment
The Code of Conduct will serve as a comprehensive checklist for political parties, candidates, media, and citizens to monitor ethical campaigning for the upcoming European elections.
International IDEA also published a Policy Brief on “Codes of conduct on the rise: Fair and ethical campaigning online”, emphasizing the value of co-created codes of conduct tailored to unique electoral contexts and the specific requirements of stakeholders such as political parties. The Policy Brief can be accessed here.
“This collective commitment of the European political parties sends a powerful message to citizens: we need to uphold the integrity of our elections in Europe,” said the Commission Vice-President.“
"This agreement will help to build trust with voters and increase their confidence in the electoral process. Elections should set the stage for the competition of ideas, not dirty manipulative methods such as AI deepfakes. I congratulate the parties on their decision to go an extra-mile in their commitment to fair campaigning.”
What is the most important recommendation in the code of conduct? “The code incudes many important commitments, but I would highlight that the parties commit to the principles of truth and accuracy and to countering mis-and disinformation during their campaigns,” Marilyn Neven, Head of EU Liaison at IDEA and one of the initiators of the code, told The Brussels Times.
“This is essential considering the important challenges democracy is facing globally, but also in Europe. This commitment is captured in article 3 of the code of conduct (see below), which was of high priority to several European political parties and to the European Commission.”
“We also consider article 6 of the essence of the code of conduct, which is on transparent online political advertising,” she added. “The promised transparency will provide more clarity to citizens who see or receive political advertising about the source of the advertising, and it will allow for a better monitoring of campaigns.”
More parties can join
Will also political parties in the EU member states join the Code and apply it in their national elections? “The code of conduct is now open for signature by national political parties and the European political parties promised to encourage their member parties to sign up,” she replied.
Generally, any political party participating in the European elections with a candidate list is invited to join the initiative and observe the commitments. “We just received a first confirmation of signature, from the Finnish Christian Democrat party (KD).”
In a parallel step, a regulation with new EU rules establishing common standards in the internal market on transparency and targeting of political advertising entered into force on Tuesday, allowing citizens to identify messages that seek to influence their political opinions and decisions.
These rules aim at promoting open democratic debate and free, fair and stable elections However, most of the obligations will only apply later (as of 9 October 2025).
What applies from now on, including the 2024 European parliament elections, is a non-discrimination rule for ads from political actors and other actors that are designed to influence elections and other democratic processes. This ‘cross-border’ rule requires service providers to provide political advertising within the EU, no matter in which member state the sponsor is based.
This does not mean that service providers would have to provide political ads in member states where it is illegal to do so (e.g. because a silence period applies just before the elections). In the previous European elections in 2019 there where online platforms that refused to provide cross border ads to EU political parties and groups because they did not have an establishment in every member state.
| Article 3 in the Code of Conduct
Ensure an ethical and transparent use of campaign tools and technologies, including artificial intelligence. Abstain from producing, using, or disseminating misleading content, in particular: 6. falsified, fabricated, doxed or stolen data or material; 7. Any type of deceptive content using audio, images or video and generated with or without artificial intelligence to falsely or deceptively alter or fake candidates, officials or any electoral stakeholder. The use of artificial intelligence-generated content is only permitted when clearly labelled. Using watermarking and provenance signals is encouraged; 8. fake accounts or automatic bots to manipulate voter opinions; 9. trolling, unfounded accusations or cyber-bullying; 10. content created and disseminated by actors from outside the EU other than member parties, seeking to erode European values and principles. |
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
