Europe's Moment of Truth: A Democracy Shield for Today and Tomorrow

Ntousas and Soula's June 2025 report provides ASD's comprehensive assessment of the European Democracy Shield initiative — mapping the threat landscape, identifying institutional and policy gaps, and proposing ten actionable recommendations. The report treats FIMI not in isolation but as one element of a multi-instrument authoritarian interference toolkit that also includes cyberattacks, malign finance, and economic coercion.

The integrated threat framing is the report's most important analytical contribution. Democratic resilience initiatives that address disinformation alone — without addressing the financial flows that support it and the cyber infrastructure that enables it — are structurally incomplete. For practitioners advising on EDS implementation or European democratic resilience strategy, this is the most actionable ASD output on the subject.