Action Plan Against Disinformation (JOIN(2018) 36)

The 2018 Action Plan Against Disinformation is the founding document of the EU's systematic counter-disinformation effort — the moment at which the EU moved from ad hoc responses to a coordinated institutional framework. The plan established the mandate for East StratCom Task Force, set out the four pillars of the EU approach (detection, analysis, response, and awareness-raising), and initiated the process that would produce the Code of Practice on Disinformation.

Read retrospectively, the 2018 Action Plan reveals both the ambition and the limitations of the early EU approach. The focus on Russian disinformation targeting EU member states is clear; the broader FIMI framework that would emerge from subsequent EEAS work is not yet present. The plan is valuable as a historical baseline — understanding where EU counter-disinformation policy started explains why the EEAS FIMI framework, the EDAP, and the DSA represent the evolution they do.