Vice-President Jourová hosts signing ceremony of the Code of Conduct for the 2024 European Parliament Elections

Today, Vice-President Jourová hosted a signing ceremony of the Code of Conduct for the 2024 European Parliament Elections. With their signature, European political parties committed to upholding ethical and fair campaign practices. Against the backdrop of growing concerns about protecting the integrity of elections in Europe from internal and external threats, this commitment by political parties carries great importance. The political parties that signed the Code of Conduct are: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, European Christian Political Movement, European Conservatives and Reformists Party, European Democratic Party, European Free Alliance, European Green Party, European People's Party, Party of European Socialist and Party of the European Left. Identity and Democracy declared that they will also join the Code of Conduct for the 2024 European Parliament elections.

To give some concrete examples, one of the commitments of the Code is that signatories will “encourage inclusive political discourse and participation by refraining from producing, using or disseminating discriminatory statements and biases against specific groups based on their gender, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation”. Another example is the parties' commitment to “refrain from running political ads sponsored by undeclared interests or otherwise engaging intermediaries to place campaign messages without attribution”.

The Code of Conduct will serve as a comprehensive checklist for political parties, candidates, media, and citizens to monitor ethical behaviour throughout the election campaign. It was jointly developed and negotiated by Vice-President Jourová and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in close consultation with the European political parties. A recording of the ceremony is available here.

Background

Many of the 14 commitments in the Code of Conduct are inspired by Recommendation on inclusive and resilient electoral processes in the Union adopted in December 2023 in the framework of the Defence of Democracy Package.

For More Information

Code of Conduct for the 2024 European Parliament Elections

Quote(s)

This collective commitment of the European political parties sends a powerful message to citizens: we need to uphold the integrity of our elections in Europe. This agreement will help to build trust with voters and increase their confidence in the electoral process. Elections should set the stage for the competition of ideas, not dirty manipulative methods such as AI deepfakes. I congratulate the parties on their decision to go an extra-mile in their commitment to fair campaigning.

Věra Jourová, Vice-President for Values and Transparency