Drawing the Line: Distinguishing Assistance, Influence, and Interference in European Elections
Foreign involvement in elections is a defining challenge for democracy, yet the analytical landscape remains fragmented. Existing efforts focus heavily on covert interference, while transparent foreign electoral assistance is under-researched or conflated with partisan influence. Consequently, deceptive rhetoric increasingly frames legitimate democratic support as "regime change." The recent weaponization of foreign interference claims in Europe and elsewhere has made it clear that a shared understanding of the criteria is essential. Without it, public trust erodes, and lawful international cooperation is delegitimized. In a fragmenting world order and a shifting normative space for election-related cooperation, it is vital not only to strengthen compliance with international standards but also to socialize those standards to build societal resilience against instrumentalization. This project develops the Foreign Electoral Involvement Observatory (FEIO) framework to systematically document and classify foreign involvement, drawing on academic literature and practitioner insights. This framework will be piloted in select European re:constitution - Call for Applications | TRACK 2 | re:constitution Fellowship 2026-27: Hansen, Ancuta elections to create a body of work that enables transparent, evidence-based distinctions among assistance, influence, and interference, using replicable, rule-of-law-aligned coding rules. Through a policy paper and a how-to brief, FEIO seeks to enhance analytical clarity and equip practitioners with practical tools to counter genuine interference while safeguarding accountable democratic assistance.
