Secretariat-General

Recommendations for the Secretariat-General.

While the Secretariat-General is primarily internally focused on internal policy coordination and strategic planning across the European Commission its mandate includes overseeing the Commission Work Programme, impact assessments, and inter-DG coordination.

The Secretariat-General is also included in the toolkit as it is involved in top-level coordination, which may include aspects of external relations, crisis coordination and global strategies.

Do

Ensure that all instruments explicitly recognise safety as a standard cost category, covering digital security, legal defence, physical protection, and psycho-social support. This should be embedded in programme guidelines, not left to interpretation. (Do no harm) (Coordinate)

Commission and share research, evaluations, and landscape studies across DGs, and ensure findings directly inform call design and programme priorities.

Don’t

Don’t duplicate compliance checks across DGs — e.g. requiring organisations to undergo multiple, near-identical due diligence processes for different instruments.

Don’t treat media freedom and viability as stand-alone topics divorced from digital policy, rule of law, competition law, and broader governance objectives.

Don’t insist on rigid visibility requirements where they may expose partners to risk or undermine perceptions of independence.

Best practice

Maintain a central repository of evaluations and lessons learned, accessible across DGs, to improve institutional memory and avoid repeating past mistakes. (Whole of system approach) (Coordinate)

Encourage collaboration between DGs on calls that combine safety, legal resilience, and sustainability, for example by linking anti-SLAPP funding under DG JUST with newsroom support under DG CONNECT. (Whole of system approach) (Coordinate) (Increase funding)