Submitted by: LDP, North Macedonia
Considering:
• That the European Commission unveiled the European Democracy Shield on 12 November 2025, marking a critical step to defend European liberal democracies against foreign malign influence.
• That the Shield correctly recognises that the security of EU Member States is indivisible from that of its neighbours, necessitating the simultaneous protection of democracies in the Western Balkans, Ukraine, and Moldova.
• That the stability of the entire continent relies on the development of functional liberal democracies capable of resisting sophisticated hybrid threats and external manipulation.
Liberal International:
1. Strongly Welcomes the Democracy Shield and Commends the Commission for recognising that European liberal democracy must be protected as a whole, not in parts.
2. Calls for more ambitious legislative action to safeguard liberal democracies and information integrity across the European Union and in candidate and partner countries
3. Urges the Centre for Democratic Resilience to extend a formal invitation for voluntary participation and knowledge-sharing to other like-minded partners.
4. Calls for the Centre to be swiftly introduced and become operational already in 2026, ensuring continuous defence of liberal values and securing the path toward solid EU enlargement.
5. Encourages democratic states to view this collective European approach as a global example for democratic resilience and invites them to join these collaborative efforts to revert the trends of global decline of democracy and secure its increase world-wide.
