Secretariat-General

Recommendations for the Secretariat-General.

🎯 Mandate

The Secretariat-General ensures coherence across all Commission policies, coordinates multi-DG initiatives, and oversees strategic planning and interinstitutional relations. Its role is to translate political priorities — such as the European Democracy Shield, European Media Freedom Act (EMFA), and Anti-SLAPP Directive — into consistent, cross-DG implementation. When it comes to supporting media and information integrity, the SG is the key actor for institutional mainstreaming: ensuring that every Directorate-General treats a safe, pluralistic, and resilient information ecosystem as critical to Europe’s democratic and economic infrastructure.

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⚖️ Opportunities and Challenges

Opportunities:

• Institutional Coherence – The SG can align DG CONNECT’s digital and competition focus, DG JUST’s rule-of-law and rights agenda, and DG INTPA’s external cooperation instruments into a single, coherent information-integrity framework.

• Democracy Shield Implementation – By embedding the Shield into annual management plans and MFF programming cycles, the SG can ensure that commitments on media freedom and journalist safety become measurable, resourced priorities.

• Data and Knowledge Sharing – The SG can expand the Better Regulation Toolbox and EU Evidence Hub to include media-specific impact data, helping DGs use shared baselines when assessing risks to media freedom and information integrity.

• Inter-Service Coordination – Through the Inter-Service Group on Democracy, the SG can convene DGs CONNECT, JUST, and EEAS to harmonise templates, MEL frameworks, and visibility-waiver guidance — reducing administrative duplication for grantees.

• Strategic Communication Coherence – By balancing visibility imperatives with the “do no harm” principle, the SG can promote consistent guidance that protects partners’ safety while maintaining transparency to EU taxpayers.

Challenges:

• Fragmented Responsibility – Media and information integrity still cut across multiple DGs with distinct mandates, leading to siloed funding and inconsistent compliance or visibility rules.

• Limited Mainstreaming Capacity – Without dedicated focal points, priorities such as journalist safety or independent media sustainability risk being treated as optional rather than structural concerns.

• Short Budget Cycles and Turnover – Frequent changes in staff and budget planning reduce institutional memory, making it difficult to maintain continuity across MFF cycles.

• Balancing Visibility and Safety – The SG must reconcile legitimate public-communication needs with the operational realities of sensitive partners, ensuring that communication guidelines are flexible and risk-aware.

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🧭 Strategic Priorities for the SG

Area	Action	OECD Principle Link
Mainstreaming	Integrate media freedom and information-integrity targets into Strategic Foresight Reports, Better Regulation guidance, and annual management plans.	3️⃣ Whole-of-System Approach
Coordination of Support	Lead an inter-service taskforce on media and information integrity, bringing together DGs CONNECT, JUST, EEAS, and INTPA to harmonise procedures.	5️⃣ Coordination of Support
Budget Planning	Embed dedicated funding for media freedom, anti-SLAPP, and information-integrity initiatives within the 2028–2034 MFF cycle.	2️⃣ Increase Funding
Monitoring & Learning	Establish a shared repository of evaluations and evidence on EU media-support impact, feeding lessons into future programming.	6️⃣ Invest in Knowledge
Risk Management	Mandate a “do no harm” check within SG quality-control procedures for new initiatives touching the information environment.	1️⃣ Do No Harm

Field Voice

“We need mechanisms, not just goodwill. Coordination has to be formalised, with one unit or taskforce responsible for cross-DG alignment — otherwise every service designs its own rules.” — EU official, OECD Toolkit consultation 2025