8 Written explanations of Mikuláš PEKSA

The Pirate Delegation considers foreign electoral interference a critical problem that is becoming increasingly dangerous to our democratic institutions as the basis for peace and prosperity. Free and fair elections are a cornerstone of the European Union and its Members. Particularly, media pluralism, civic education, critical thinking, protection of privacy and freedom of speech are key to defending ourselves against foreign interference.However, our core principles of freedom of speech and the freedom of the internet are being challenged by paragraph 28 of the resolution, which calls on the Commission to ‘close down accounts of persons engaging in illegal activities aimed at the disruption of democratic processes or at instigating hate speech’. Closing down accounts could lead to the distortion of elections by excessive censorship. Free access to information is an essential pre-requisite in countering disinformation and foreign electoral interference. Illegal content should be removed and, where applicable, those responsible prosecuted. Closing down accounts, however, would introduce a new type of sanction that could exclude citizens from communication channels needed for work, education and/or personal life. Restricting access to accounts would hamper the right to anonymous and free speech and exclude certain groups from essential services.

. – Animal welfare is a crucial issue for us and we do see the positive idea behind this resolution. We do welcome fair treatment of companion animals and we do not, under any circumstances, support any unfair or illegal trade of those animals.However, there should be a balance between the aim of protecting animals and the right of individuals to respect for privacy. It is not necessary and proportionate to register the personal data of everyone who ever played a part in the life of an animal in a centralised register, as envisaged by this resolution. Likewise, Pirates are opposed to mandatory identification of users of online platforms, including where advertising pets for sale online. It is not justified to discriminate against users of digital marketplaces in comparison to real-life trading.Taking into consideration the relevant language in this resolution, we decided to abstain.

. – We Pirates endorsed the Resolution on the Status of Women. We strive for gender equality and support many of the proposals in the resolution, such as the call to urgently conclude the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, to do more to close the gender pay and pension gap, to eliminate any gender biases in taxation systems or to include a gender perspective in the fight against climate change.However, we voted against point v on quotas. In our opinion, quotas do not constitute the right approach and may discriminate better qualified men and women. We believe skills and knowledge are the key aspects of qualification and they do not belong exclusively to one sex or the other. Every person should have equal access to positions according to their qualification without discrimination because of their gender, age, origin, religion etc.Instead of quotas, we stress the need to introduce other measures to enhance qualification-based representation in decision-making. To increase the participation of women therein and in the labour market in general, we advocate for gender pay transparency, investments in accessibility and affordability of childcare, suitable working environments and flexible working arrangements as some of the key preconditions.

We decided to support this amendment because of the clear need to involve the largest companies in the transition effort. However, it is important to state that the amendment in question does not specify which companies should be subject to these proposals and regulations. Small and medium enterprises should be left out of the scope of these administrative requirements. Their participation in the transition should be wholly market-driven (e.g. through ETS, carbon taxes and incentives, etc.).

. ‒ There are numerous points of the report we agree with: unified and liberal European rules for virtual assets and openness towards new technologies in general. However, we are not able to support a report that uses scaremonger tactics and links virtual assets prominently to terrorism and overstates the threats they pose. We need virtual assets to act as digital cash, a simple way for anonymous transactions, which are essential for personal and political privacy for European citizens. We have no need of disproportionate regulation that would force most of the users to work outside of the European framework. And that is what is at stake if we base our policy on fear.

. – This report correctly names existing problems related to structural racism in society and suggests, in a vast majority of cases, appropriate solutions to tackle them. For the Pirates, the fight for equality and against racism and discrimination is deeply rooted in our fundamental principles.However, we voted against the report due to the calls to improve upload filters and due to provisions promoting the code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online, as the code relies on content moderation based on unilateral decisions made by the platforms instead of a judicial assessment of potential hate speech and does not limit removal of content without judicial assessment to manifestly illegal content. Both of which pose a serious risk to freedom on speech.

. – We appreciate and fully support the determination expressed in this resolution for improving participation and removing discrimination in democratic processes in the EU. The resolution rightly highlights the need to address the voting opportunities of disadvantaged groups of citizens and enable persons with disabilities to exercise their full rights as EU citizens. It raises a number of favourable proposals in terms of rainbow families, children in cross—border custody, etc.Even though we support the resolution’s digital proposals such as digitalisation of public services, or the establishment of an online one-stop-shop centralising all EU participatory instruments, we cannot agree with the call on Member States to implement remote voting options, including electronic voting.Safe and secure electronic voting is, at this time, technologically impossible. The text evokes safeguards, which, however, cannot be realistically met. There is ample potential for fraud and misuse, which makes the proposal too risky. This is why we voted against the report.

The Pirate delegation in the European Parliament decided to abstain on the Report on Mental Health on the grounds that paragraph 54 calls on the Member States to detect and prevent the use of addictive licit and illicit substances. This wording is calling for stricter prohibition in place of sound harm reduction policies, which present the preferred solution.Additionally, the report fails to consider the latest science on certain psychoactive substances which can be addictive (ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin), but in therapeutical settings they are shown to help treat patients with depression, PTSD and addiction. The Pirates would like to see a reclassification of these substances to allow for their medical use, instead of reinforcing outdated prohibition principles.