Debate: Situation of Fundamental Rights in the European Union – Annual Report for the years -
Date: TUESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2020
Speaker: Věra Jourová
Language: EN

The Commission will propose in December a strategy to strengthen the application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Over the past decade, the Charter has led to a greater promotion and protection of people’s fundamental rights in the European Union. It has triggered new legislation directly protecting and promoting certain key rights. However, as proven by recent developments, fundamental rights, democracy or the rule of law cannot be taken for granted. They require EU citizens and ourselves to constantly stand up for those principles. Allow me to reflect on several issues raised by the report. First, on the importance of a comprehensive approach to combat discrimination, exclusion, prejudice or hate speech and hate crime. The Commission has renewed its efforts to ensure the correct transposition of the framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia. The commitment to tackle serious manifestations of racism is one of the main pillars of the Commission’s Anti-racism Action Plan adopted on 18 September and we have to go further.  By the end of the next year, the Commission will take an initiative to extend the list of EU crimes under the EU Treaty to all forms of hate crime and hate speech. This will give us a legal basis for legislative action. In parallel to strengthening our legal framework we need to fight stereotypes and bias and promote diversity and inclusion policies. One cannot succeed without the other.  The plan for the actions that need to be taken by the Commission and the Member States are reflected in our strategic documents adopted since the Commission took its mandate which were: Gender Equality Strategy; LGBTIQ Strategy; the already mentioned EU Anti-racism Action Plan; and on the reinforced EU Roma Inclusion Strategic Framework. And we are working on strengthening media freedom and pluralism as addressed during Monday’s debate on the Adamowicz report. The Commission is currently finalising a European Democracy Action Plan, which will focus on elections integrity, media freedom and media pluralism and tackling disinformation. When delivering on the Democracy Action Plan we will explore the issue of strategic lawsuits against public participation and present in 2021 an initiative against abusive litigation targeting journalists and rights’ defenders.  The Commission is aware that civil society and rights’ defenders are facing pressures and obstacles in certain Member States. Ensuring an enabling a supportive environment for these actors is one of the focal points of our upcoming strategy to strengthen the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the EU. We welcome the increase in the budget of the rights and values programme in the Multiannual Financial Framework, which will be useful in that regard.  The Commission shares your concerns about the protection of the most vulnerable people, such as children in poverty or people with no access to adequate housing. We will continue to support Member States in their efforts. The forthcoming EU Child Guarantee and EU Rights of the Child Strategy will address the special needs of the children in 2021.  With regard to your concerns about the situation of migrants and the push-backs at some borders, I would like to underline that the Charter applies to Member States when they are implementing EU migration law. It is imperative that measures taken by border guards to protect the external borders are taken in respect of fundamental rights and international law, in particular, the principle of  Adherence to the principles is strongly reflected in our new Action Plan on integration and inclusion, which focuses on both migrants and EU citizens with a migrant background. It aims to ensure effective integration and inclusion as it is a social and economic investment that makes European societies more cohesive, resilient and more prosperous. Last, but not least, I would like to underline that the Commission is committed to upholding the rule of law in the Union by all the means at its disposal. It is a precondition for the respect of fundamental rights. We fully agree with the European Parliament with regard to the importance of strengthening the EU’s capacity to monitor the respect of the common values on which the EU is founded.  On 30 September we presented the first annual rule of law report at the centre of the new Comprehensive European Rule of Law Mechanism. One of its objectives is to strengthen interinstitutional cooperation on the rule of law matters and to trigger an inclusive debate at European and national level. We are ready to organise further discussions with the European Parliament on this report, including on individual country chapters.