Commission services and Moldovan authorities conduct a stress test on potential digital hybrid threats to election integrity ahead of Moldova’s parliamentary elections

On 28 September 2025 the Republic of Moldova will hold parliamentary elections. The integrity of electoral processes and the conduction of free, fair and secure elections is essential for the functioning and legitimacy of democracies.

Recent elections, including Moldova's 2024 presidential elections and referendum, have shown that malign actors increasingly target elections with complex disinformation campaigns and cyber-attacks. These seek to undermine the integrity of the electoral process and the ability of citizens to participate in free, fair, and secure elections.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, Moldova's Ministry for Economic Development and Digitalisation, the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova and the European Union Partnership Mission in Moldova organised a digital hybrid threats simulation in Chisinau on 11 June 2025.

Representatives from Google, Meta, and TikTok voluntarily participated in the simulation alongside Moldovan authorities, civil society organizations, fact-checkers, independent media, as well as international partners. The full-day simulation of threat scenarios aimed to enhance awareness and an effective response by all relevant actors to potential malign disinformation campaigns and cyber-attacks intended to disrupt the forthcoming parliamentary election. The simulation built on the election readiness exercise conducted in Chisinau in September 2024 and the stress test held with online platforms ahead of the 2024 European elections.

This follows the EU's recent deployment of a group of experts, the Hybrid Rapid Response Team, to support Moldova against foreign interference. On 20 May 2025, the Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister and the Commission concluded an amendment to Moldova's Digital Europe Programme association agreement which will allow Moldova access to the EU Cybersecurity Reserve under the Cyber Solidarity Act. The recently adopted Cyber Crisis Management Blueprint also recommends joint EU exercises with Moldova and other candidate countries, given their common exposure to cyber threats.

It was also announced that, to further support Moldova in addressing challenges related to foreign interference and disinformation, a new regional hub of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) will be established. The hub will focus on Russian disinformation and will cover, among others, Moldova. It is expected to begin its work soon and will also conduct dedicated monitoring during the upcoming electoral period in Moldova.

Furthermore, the Commission services encouraged four major online platforms (Meta, Google, TikTok and Microsoft) to closely cooperate with civil society actors and engage with the new EDMO Hub based on the success of the temporary escalation mechanism that was implemented during Moldova's 2024 elections. The cooperation mechanism allowed independent civil society organisations to bring time-sensitive content to the attention of online platforms that may pose a threat to the integrity of the electoral process in Moldova.

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