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Subtitle: In the wider context of the Digital Services Act Referenda
The European Commission presented a proposal for a harmonised set of rules on the transparency and targeting of political advertising (2021/0381 (COD)). These rules would apply to both online and offline political advertising. The proposal is currently under discussion in the European Parliament and the Council, under the ordinary legislative procedure. The overall background of this proposal is to prevent mass-manipulation of voters by political actors in or outside the EU who do this to influence election results. The fact that online political advertising is cross-border by its very nature means that national legislation has a very limited effect. Moreover, given that there are significant diaspora communities from several Member States in other Member States, creates a cross-border element to many election campaigns in Europe1. The proposal would cover all political advertising in the EU aimed to ‘influence the outcome of an election, a referendum, a legislative or regulatory process, or voting behaviour in general, even if they do not come from a political actor’ (article 2(2) of the proposal). The focus in this publication will be on two specific (and interacting) elements from the Commission proposal: referenda and the role of the national authorities within the scope of this proposed EU legislation.
