The EU's Role in Fighting Disinformation: Taking Back the Initiative (Part 1)

The first of Pamment's three-part series commissioned by the EEAS examines the emerging threat landscape facing the EU and makes the case for a more proactive — rather than reactive — European approach to disinformation. The paper introduces the ABCDE framework (Actors, Behaviour, Content, Dissemination, Effects) that would later become influential in EU counter-disinformation methodology, and draws on the COVID-19 infodemic as a live case study of what a more coordinated EU response could look like.

Read as a historical document, this paper captures a critical moment in the development of EU counter-disinformation policy — the point at which the EU began to think systematically about its own role rather than simply monitoring threats. The ABCDE framework introduced here subsequently shaped EEAS analytical methodology. For practitioners working on EU policy or needing to understand the intellectual foundations of the European approach, this trilogy is the essential primary source.