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✅ Consolidated Checklist – EU-Focused DGs

(DG CONNECT · DG JUST · Secretariat-General)

🎯 Purpose

To ensure that the EU’s internal policy frameworks — digital, legal, and strategic — work together to safeguard media freedom, information integrity, and journalist safety. This checklist helps Commission staff translate the OECD Principles on Relevant and Effective Support to Media and the Information Environment into coordinated operational practice across internally-focused DGs.

🧭 How to use this checklist

Apply it during programme design, inter-service consultations, call preparation, and evaluation planning. Each column highlights where coordination or alignment is essential between DG CONNECT, DG JUST, and the Secretariat-General (SG).

OECD Principle

DG CONNECT

DG JUST

Secretariat-General (SG)

1️⃣ Do No Harm

Integrate risk-assessment and visibility-waiver guidance into Creative Europe and EMFA calls; ensure digital-safety and privacy-by-design requirements for media partners.

Enforce Anti-SLAPP Directive protections and promote rapid legal-aid mechanisms; include safety clauses in Rule of Law funding.

Include “harm check” criteria in inter-service quality control; ensure Commission communication guidelines balance transparency with partner safety.

2️⃣ Increase Support

Scale Creative Europe – NEWS and Journalism Partnerships into multi-year, core-support mechanisms that include organisational safety, legal defence, and digital resilience.

Embed media freedom and information-integrity measures in justice and rights programmes; ensure legal-aid funds are adequately resourced.

Secure dedicated budget lines for information-integrity actions in MFF and European Democracy Shield programming; coordinate pooled funding across DGs.

3️⃣ Whole-of-System Perspective

Align EMFA, DSA, and DMA implementation with rule-of-law and competition frameworks; treat media viability as part of the digital-market architecture.

Integrate media-freedom indicators into Rule of Law Reports; link Anti-SLAPP, data-protection, and judicial-training actions to wider governance goals.

Ensure horizontal coherence between democracy, digital, and rule-of-law strategies; embed information integrity in Better Regulation and Strategic Foresight planning.

4️⃣ Local Leadership & Ownership

Simplify access for smaller and independent outlets through proportional compliance rules and micro-grant mechanisms; promote innovation led by regional media ecosystems.

Support training and networking for national judges, prosecutors, and journalists’ associations; foster Member-State ownership of Anti-SLAPP enforcement.

Promote inclusion of local perspectives in cross-DG consultations and evaluations; ensure Member-State coordination mechanisms consider local and regional actors.

5️⃣ Coordination of Support

Participate in inter-service taskforces on information integrity; harmonise reporting templates with DG JUST and SG.

Coordinate with DG CONNECT on EMFA/Anti-SLAPP interface; align MEL frameworks for media-freedom actions.

Lead inter-service coordination and ensure consistency between internal and external democracy instruments; maintain central repository of evaluations and guidance.

6️⃣ Invest in Knowledge, Research & Learning

Commission joint studies on digital-market impacts, AI and media pluralism; publish annual Creative Europe impact data.

Support comparative research on SLAPP trends, judicial outcomes, and freedom-of-expression jurisprudence.

Integrate media and information-integrity data into the EU Evidence Hub and Better Regulation Toolbox; convene annual learning reviews across DGs.

💡 Implementation Tips

  • Apply proportionality: Scale compliance and audit requirements to organisational size and risk profile.

  • Institutionalise safety: Treat safety, legal protection, and psychosocial care as standard eligible costs in all relevant programmes.

  • Align MEL: Use shared monitoring and evaluation templates across DGs to reduce administrative burden on grantees.

  • Strengthen cross-DG taskforces: Use SG-led coordination to ensure consistent implementation of EMFA, DSA, DMA, and Anti-SLAPP provisions.

  • Feed lessons forward: Publish cross-DG learning notes summarising progress and challenges; use them to inform future MFF planning.

🧭 Linkages

PreviousEU-focused Directorates-GeneralNextDG CONNECT

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