The 2020 annual report of the Council of Europe Platform to Promote the Protection of Journalism and Safety of Journalists indicates that during 2019, several reports were received of "meritless legal actions by powerful individuals or companies that seek to intimidate journalists into dropping their work," or SLAPPs.

Alarmed by the increasing number of such reports, the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights published a commentary and proposed several possible solutions (Dunja Mijatovic, "Time to take actions against SLAPPs", 27 October 2020).

In a March 2022 judgment, the European Court of Human Rights referenced the Human Rights Commissioner’s appeal and highlighted “the growing awareness of the risks that court proceedings instituted with a view to limiting public participation bring for democracy” (ECHR, 15 March 2022 judgment OOO Memo v. Russia, paras. 23 and 43). Given that danger and the imbalance of power between the applicant in the case at hand (the administration of the Volgograd region of Russia) and the defendant (a media outlet), the Court examined whether the administration had pursued a legitimate aim within the meaning of Article 10(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights by instituting civil defamation proceedings against the media outlet. The Court concluded that the purpose was not the protection of the good name of others and, therefore, that there was a violation of Article 10(2) of the Convention.

On December 12, 2022, during the International Press Freedom Seminar at UGent, with a focus on SLAPPs, the establishment of the Anti-SLAPP Working Group Belgium was announced.

Meanwhile, a broad coalition of NGOs, media organizations, journalists’ associations, and academics has urged both the European Union and the Council of Europe to take action.

The European Commission adopted a recommendation and also developed a proposal for a directive, which has since been adopted. The directive was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on April 16, 2024. Member states must transpose the directive by May 7, 2026, at the latest.

Initiatives have also been taken within the Council of Europe. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) published a report on November 23, 2023, calling for an end to "this particularly insidious type of threat to freedom of expression." On January 25, 2024, PACE adopted a resolution (Resolution 2531 (2024)) and a recommendation (Recommendation 2267 (2024)). With the recommendation, the Assembly urged the Committee of Ministers to "adopt a bold recommendation on countering the use of SLAPPs following CDMSI proposals" and recommended that it "encourages and monitors the prompt and effective implementation by member states of the guidelines set forth in the recommendation, including the wide range of safeguard mechanisms and remedies it contains." On April 5, 2024, the Committee of Ministers adopted the Recommendation to combat SLAPPs (Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on countering the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation; see also CASE: "A significant milestone in the fight against SLAPPs"). With the Recommendation, the Committee of Ministers calls on member states to develop strategies and implement effective measures to counter SLAPPs (MSI-SLP Committee of Experts on Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation).