EU ministers open democratic resilience centre to enlargement partners
EU ministers endorsed associating eight enlargement partners with the European Centre for Democratic Resilience, opening selected projects to their participation.
The story in focus
EU ministers at the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 13 October endorsed associating Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Kosovo with the European Centre for Democratic Resilience, allowing member states to invite these partners into some of the Centre's projects.
- Ministers endorsed the association of eight enlargement partners with the Centre, which launched on 24 February 2026.
- Member states can now invite these partners to propose, co-lead and participate in some Centre projects.
- Discussed cooperation areas include detection of foreign information manipulation and interference, resilience measurement, crisis exercises and journalist protection training.
What ministers decided
At the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 13 October, EU ministers endorsed associating Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine, together with Kosovo, with the European Centre for Democratic Resilience. The Centre was officially launched on 24 February 2026 and already runs projects with member states.
The endorsement concerns the Centre's work rather than EU accession. The source states the designation of Kosovo is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the International Court of Justice opinion on Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Proposed cooperation areas
Ministers discussed possible areas of cooperation with enlargement partners in future projects. These include developing common concepts and methodologies for detecting foreign information manipulation and interference, measuring democratic resilience, taking part in tabletop crisis management exercises, and trainings on protecting journalists, civil society organisations, fact-checkers and politicians.
According to the announcement, member states can now invite enlargement partners to propose, co-lead and participate in some of the Centre's projects. The Centre says its aims include improving collective capacity to detect and anticipate threats to democratic resilience in Europe and its neighbourhood and strengthening rapid response capacity.
Next step
The source identifies no further decision date. Under the arrangement described, the next step depends on member states, which can now invite the associated partners into selected projects. The Centre is also running a Training of the Trainers programme with the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency and a pilot Stakeholder Platform involving civil society, media, fact-checkers, researchers and media literacy professionals.
Which countries can now take part in some European Centre for Democratic Resilience projects?
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Kosovo, whose association EU ministers endorsed on 13 October. Member states can invite them to propose, co-lead and participate in some projects.
Sources & further reading
- The European Centre for Democratic Resilience opens cooperation to candidate countries and potential candidates ↗commission.europa.eu
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