Dealing with this challenge requires a whole-of-government and a whole-of-society approach, which the EU is supporting across the region.

Strengthening partnerships with international and local organizations – governmental and non-governmental – helps build the resilience local populations need to autonomously identify and tackle disinformation, and increases the capacity of the Western Balkans partners to handle these threats. This work remains crucial for strengthening democracy, for example in relation to protecting the integrity of elections, access to information, and media freedom.

Increasing media literacy is also of high importance. Being able to critically assess, use and create information is a key skill in the 21st century, allowing citizens to navigate the information environment and make well-informed choices. It also facilitates their responsible participation in political processes and voting in democratic elections, free from interference and manipulation. 

In line with the overall EU efforts in this field, the EU supports activities to enhance media literacy in the Western Balkans. This includes research studies throughout the region which raise awareness and build social resilience such as “Disinformation in the Online Sphere: The Case of BiH” and "Disinformation and Information Distortion in North Macedonia", capacity-building projects (see examples below), organising of workshops for high school students and teachers, and social media campaigns such as the Macedonian “Vazno e da ne e lazno!” (It is important it is not fake), where athletes, actors, musicians, journalists, teachers and young activists took part in campaign videos to help promote critical thinking. 

The EU also supports the work of international, regional and local civil society organisations such as fact-checkers, whose work in the region is of paramount importance for countering disinformation and enhancing public awareness and media literacy. The Third-Party Fact-Checking partnership between Western Balkans fact-checkers and Facebook was a clear recognition of the crucial role of regional fact-checkers. One of them, Tijana Cvjetićanin of BiH organisation Raskrinkavanje, was portrayed in the 2021 edition of the EEAS social media campaign “Europeans making a difference”:

Since 2020, the EU organises the EU – Western Balkans Media Literacy Conference in partnership with civil society organisations in the region. The latest edition took place in October 2024 in Pristina, following other editions held in Podgorica, Skopje, Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Brussels and online. This annual event gathers fact-checkers, youth, journalists and authorities from the Western Balkans and the EU to discuss media literacy and the fight against disinformation, and has become an important meeting place for exchange and for formulating strategies for going forward.