European Democracy Shield’s “Information Integrity”: What Is the Role of Experts?

In the context of the post-truth scenario and the assumed decline of democratic practices in the EU, the European Commission has developed policies in defence of democracy (García-Guitián et al., 2024), most recently in the form of the European Democracy Shield initiative. This paper aims to understand from a normative perspective on the key political concept of “information integrity” in the European Democracy Shield. This concept is connected to ideas such as knowledge and evidence-based decision-making. In practice, however, these ideas are not just contested within the EU’s political terrain of shifting meanings over what democracy should be but also in the academic debates. The paper examines the interrelated political and academic debates relating to the ideas behind information integrity. To shed light on the normative assumptions behind, it asks: what is the assumed role of experts?