On July 2-3, 2024, the Regional Conference on Money in Politics 2024 was held in the Republic of Moldova, with the topic "Money in Politics in the Era of Globalization and Digitalization."
The event brought together over 150 participants from 9 countries, representing various authorities responsible for oversight of political financing, civil society, political parties, international organizations, online platform representatives, and experts in the electoral and media fields from the entire Eastern European region.
During the 2 days, through four discussion panels and workshops, were addressed topics related to the risks and challenges that may arise in the process of oversight and monitoring of the financial means spent by political actors on online advertising.
While money remains an essential resource in politics and voter outreach, globalization, and digitalization are changing how politicians run their campaigns and how the public may monitor this process. Recent regional trends show a rising role of online and social media and an increased use of digital technologies for political funding and monitoring. Furthermore, the rapid use of artificial intelligence continues to add complexity to this already challenging field.
The online space and technologies have become a go-to resource for spreading disinformation to influence the voting decisions. While often such disinformation campaigns are backed by large amounts of money, many online campaign technologies and tactics are inexpensive and do not violate basic political finance standards aimed at ensuring a level playing field for all competitors. These represent a new set of issues that challenge the existing political finance regulatory frameworks and require reformation.
During the Conference, was an exchange of knowledge and lessons learned on addressing the challenges linked to the phenomenon of digitalization and online campaigns in the integrity of political financing.
The Conference was co-hosted by the Central Electoral Commission of Moldova, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR), the Council of Europe, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD).
Agenda Money in Politics Regional Conference 2024
Session I: Regional trends that endanger political finance integrity: foreign influence, disinformation, artificial intelligence, and illegal digital campaign activities
Yves-Marie Doublet, expert of the Group of States against Coruption (GRECO)
Olha Snopok, Social Media Analist, Civil Network OPORA
Session II: The impact of emerging trends on political finance: the perspective of political parties
Session III: The impact of emerging trends on monitoring and oversight of money in politics
Veronika Bilkova, vice-president of Venice Commission
Lina Petroniene, Chairwoman of Central Electoral Commission of Lithuania
Sergiu Lipcean, Research Fellow at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen
Viktoriia Maksymova, Leading Analyst, CHESNO Movement
Money in Politics in the Era of Globalization and Digitalization - Day 1
Money in Politics in the Era of Globalization and Digitalization - Day 2