MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – Announcement of a ‘round table’ on the elections in Poland organised by the Commission – E-001044/2025(ASW)

The conduct and the organisation of elections are the competence and responsibility of the Member States, in accordance with their national constitutional and legislative rules, while respecting their international obligations and EU law.

The Digital Services Act (DSA[1]) requires providers of very large online platforms (VLOPs) and very large online search engines (VLOSEs) to assess and mitigate systemic risks linked to electoral processes and civic discourse while protecting fundamental rights, including the freedom of expression[2]. The Commission issued guidelines for VLOPs and VLOSEs on the mitigation of systemic risks for electoral processes, which recommend different options for mitigation measures[3].

The Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) coordinate work at national level with the aim of ensuring compliance with the DSA, including during electoral periods. The European Board for Digital Services, composed of the DSCs, compiled a DSA Elections Toolkit[4] aiming to support DSCs in this task. DSCs can namely organise election roundtables to facilitate information sharing between relevant stakeholders such as online platforms and civil society organisations. If requested by the DSCs, the Commission may provide support in this exercise, as it did ahead a number of recent national elections. These roundtables are not public and it is for the DSCs to decide and communicate on what was discussed or who participated.

The Commission has so far not received any request from the Polish DSC and is therefore currently not involved in a potential roundtable in Poland.

• [1] Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act),  OJ L 277, 27.10.2022, p. 1-102 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2065/oj/eng.
• [2] Articles 34 and 35 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
• [3] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52024XC03014&qid=1714466886277.
• [4] https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/dsa-elections-toolkit-digital-services-coordinators.