​We are delighted that Facts 4 EU have given us permission to republish this vitally important research 
https://facts4eu.org/news/2025_nov_vote_control

Then we read on and it became increasingly concerning to the point we were chilled to the bone.

All Rejoiners should read what follows

Regarding Frau von der Leyen's opening remarks, we would simply point out that she has not been elected by a popular mandate, yet she regularly represents the EU27 at international events across the globe such as the G7 and the UN as if the EU were a country and she were its leader. In Wednesday's statement she and her Commission took this further and pronounced on democracy.

There are a remarkable number of elements contained within this document. We will list each of them, accompanied by our summary interpretations. After 10 years of daily experience of the EU Commission, the Facts4EU team is very well-placed to deconstruct this and put it into terms that people can readily understand. We present the facts using key quotes and our observations - which normally follow our reports at the end - are instead placed after each quotation, labelled 'Comment'.

We know this report is 'text-heavy' but it is important and we hope it will be read.

What the Commission announced – the overview

The two main headline items are the European Democracy Shield and the EU Strategy for Civil Society.

Comment: True democracies have no need for a 'Shield'. The value of living in a democracy is self-evident and a democracy should be strong enough not to require defence from within by an unelected and therefore undemocratic body based elsewhere, which is what is going to be imposed – apparently with "concrete actions".

The second part of the announcement, the 'EU Strategy for a Civil Society', will be based on consultations with organisations of the Commission's choosing. (More below.)

Below we have created a form of 'organogram' – an organisation chart which attempts to make sense of the relationship between all these various bodies. It is impossible to represent this fully as we don't yet know the bodies which will be responsible for various activities, so this is merely a guide. All we can say is that no business on the planet would ever have such a bizarre organisational structure. It will certainly ensure that ultimate accountability for what happens under these areas of activity will be opaque, to say the least.

1. The European Democracy Shield

The term 'European Democracy Shield' embraces one major element: the 'European Centre for Democratic Resilience ', under which is another body called the 'Stakeholder Platform', which in turn has a sub-stratum of three main components beneath it which contain various other new and existing bodies.

1.1 European Centre for Democratic Resilience

The main part of the 'Shield' is the European Centre for Democratic Resilience (ECDR), whose purpose is apparently:

"to bring together EU and Member States' expertise and resources to increase our collective capacity to anticipate, detect and respond to threats and build democratic resilience."

1.1.1 Stakeholder Platform

Under this ECDR is the Stakeholder Platform. This is where things get even more interesting. It might be thought that stakeholders in any democratic initiative would be the public – the voters. Not so. The Commission is limiting the 'Stakeholder Platform' to:

"trusted stakeholders such as civil society organisations, researchers and academia, fact-checkers and media providers."

Comment: In other words, the Commission only wants people involved who have bought into this interference in the democratic process. The Platform contains precisely those types of organisations and individuals whom we have been battling for the last 10 years, in our pursuit of independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedom for the United Kingdom.

Under the heading of Stakeholder Platform there are three sub-headings. (Bear with us here…)

1.1.1.1 Safeguarding the integrity of the information space

The EU Commission's interference continues to dive even deeper into the whole process of national elections in member countries. This includes the following activities and bodies:

"The Commission will further work with signatories under the Code of Conduct on Disinformation and prepare a Digital Services Act incidents and crisis protocol to facilitate coordination among relevant authorities and ensure swift reactions to large-scale and potentially transnational information operations. An independent European Network of Fact-Checkers will be set up to boost fact-checking capacity in all EU official languages and the European Digital Media Observatory will develop new independent monitoring and analytical capabilities for situational awareness on elections or in situations of crises."

Comment: Readers will note the use of the words 'crisis' and 'crises', on top of previously used words such as 'threats'. It is always useful to be able to declare a 'crisis' to justify what might otherwise be deemed to be authoritarian acts. Lockdowns are a case in point.

We are also interested in the European Network of Fact-Checkers and seriously doubt - if the UK were still a member country - that Facts4EU would be invited to join this group. We suspect we would be more likely to come to the attention of the European Digital Media Observatory.

1.1.1.2 Strengthening our institutions, fair and free elections, and free and independent media

Comment: The Commission begins this section by admitting that "… the organisation and conduct of elections are the competence of the Member States" but immediately goes on to say "strengthened cooperation at EU level is necessary to address common challenges in this field." In other words, elections are the business of member countries… except when the EU intervenes. It extends this by referencing the European Cooperation Network on Elections.

Finally, it states there will be reinforced funding for some journalism by 'independent media'.

Comment: One can only wonder exactly what will fall under "common challenges in this field" when it comes to a country's elections. It seems the EU Commission will decide, along with their chosen 'stakeholders'.

As for funding 'independent media', we seriously doubt GB News would be a beneficiary of the Commission's largesse, were the UK still a Member.

1.1.1.3 Boosting societal resilience and citizens' engagement

"To help recognise and counter information manipulation, the Commission … will develop an EU citizenship competence framework along with guidelines to strengthen citizenship education in schools. It will also support citizens' engagement in democratic life through participatory and consultative tools, with a focus on local levels and youth…"

Comment: We can only refer to this as the indoctrination part. Re-education was a common part of the totalitarian make-up of the old Soviet system and clearly its importance has not been missed by the Commission.

'Helping' member countries to make the right policies

"The Commission will also help further promote evidence-based decision-making, including through the adoption of a Recommendation on supporting scientific evidence in policymaking."

Comment Finally in this section it seems the Commission is determined to get involved in policy-making at national level. Its opening gambit is the use of 'the science' to make policies and the scientific advice will of course come from the Commission.

Thankfully Part 2 is shorter, but no less important

As with all measures the Commission introduces, this will inevitably be extended into other areas of policy-making. Ultimately, whole new ranges of policies at national level will no longer be decided by the government elected by the people. This is already the case in many aspects of life. This statement opens up a whole new area.

2. The EU Strategy for Civil Society

"With the EU Strategy for Civil Society, the Commission is stepping up its engagement with civil society, and will further support and protect civil society organisations in their work. The Strategy proposes concrete actions at EU and national level."

Comment: 'Civil society organisations' (CSOs) for the EU Commission means those representing certain special interests. A major criticism of the Commission and Parliament for many years has been its openness to paid lobbying on the part of powerful groups. The prominent use of CSOs to drive actions is deeply troubling. They will have far more influence than if they simply acted as organisations producing reports and recommendations.

2.1 'A new Civil Society Platform'

The purpose of this additional 'Platform' is "to further facilitate dialogue on the protection and promotion of EU values."

Comment: 'EU values' is yet more indoctrination. Who decides these 'values'? 'Civil Society Organisations', we assume.

2.2 'Knowledge Hub on Civic Space'

The Commission says the purpose of this 'Hub' is to provide protection measures "such as urgent assistance to organisations under threat, and coordination of available protection measures in Member States."

2.3 More funding for certain organisations

"…the Commission has proposed to significantly increase the financial support to CSOs, [Civil Society Organisations – Ed.] with €9 billion foreseen for the AgoraEU programme alone."

Comment: Billions are to be given to the type of organisations that a great many people may not approve of. The electorates certainly won't get a say in who gets all the taxpayers' money.

Observations

The above statement from the EU Commission, with all its numerous new bodies and processes, is quite possibly one of the most shocking expositions in the last few years of the EU turning from a dysfunctional wannabe superstate into an authoritarian, totalitarian monster.

We invite readers to take a step back and look at this from its first precepts. We are talking about national parliaments, elected by their peoples as the sovereign expression of their views and wishes. As Sir Bill Cash, veteran and highly respected former MP and Shadow Attorney-General, once told our Chairman: "Sovereignty IS democracy." Now it seems that the EU Commission will take over the supervision of elections. This is not only talk. The Commission is threatening "concrete actions".

Not only that, but von der Leyen's Commission is extending its 'misinformation and disinformation' agenda thoroughly into the electoral space. Perhaps it is planning for the day when it can prevent the likes of Geert Wilders and Viktor Orbán from winning elections convincingly, as they both do currently.

Are we exaggerating the importance of all this?

Some readers may feel we are imputing too much into the creation of this new structure with all its arms. We can only say that 10 years' experience of monitoring the Commission and other EU structures seven days-a-week has given us some insight into moves like this. It is our conviction that Brexit Britain has dodged another bullet.

Much more worrying is the thought of the breed of monster being slowly but surely created across the Channel.

The most supreme irony in all of this, of course, is that not one of the all-powerful EU Commissioners – the only representatives of the EU monolith that can put forward new laws or regulations – has been democratically elected by the people they supposedly serve. These Commissioners would of course deny it, but the whole ethos of an unelected body stretching its powers in this way is reminiscent of the philosophy that the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' is a necessary thing in order to complete a process which started some seventy years ago.

The EU is a patient beast. It moves in incremental steps. We must remember the Treaty of Rome wasn't built in a day…