Conflict of interest of the European Digital Media Observatory
8.10.2025
Question for written answer E-003960/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Alexandra Geese (Verts/ALE)
The European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) receives EUR 7 980 780 from the European Union and Commissioner McGrath has recently announced that it will continue to receive funding. EDMO representatives have met with the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers to advise on the Democracy Shield. At the same time, EDMO has a major role in decision-making for the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF). It acts as an advisor on the formulation of calls and the evaluation and selection of projects and it hosted the EMIF 2025 summer conference. EMIF received funding of EUR 25 million from Google. Therefore, EDMO receives basic funding from the Commission but uses its staff to formulate calls, evaluate and select projects and host conferences for a Google fund.
- 1.Can the Commission explain why it is funding EDMO, an organisation that spends part of its time running a Google fund three times bigger than its own funding?
- 2.Does the Commission consider EDMO’s advice on the Democracy Shield as possibly being influenced by Google?
- 3.Has the Commission noticed that EDMO’s position, in which it focuses exclusively on media literacy and fact-checking while not addressing the well-known structural causes of disinformation, might be influenced by the Google fund it manages?
Submitted: 8.10.2025