Activities of Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR related to 2022/2898(RSP)
Institutional motions (1)
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the 2022 Rule of Law Report – the rule of law situation in the European Union
Amendments (4)
Amendment 87 #
Paragraph 9
9. Commends the efforts by the Commission to engage better with national stakeholders; recognises civil society as an essential actor for the rule of law, with an important role to play in the follow-up to the annual report and its implementation; calls on the Commission to pursue the consistent and meaningful involvement of civil society in both the preparation and the follow-up to the report at national level, in cooperation with the FRA; including by allowing sufficient time to contribute to the process and reaching out extensively to civil society organisations in country visits; calls on the Commission to secure a more inclusive, transparent and user- friendly approach to the cycle, to ensure meaningful stakeholder participation and accountability throughout the process; calls on the Commission to further invest, through dedicated funding, in building capacity for CSOs to monitor and report on the RoL situation in the Member States, and to ensure adequate protection to civil society engaging in the process;
Amendment 97 #
Paragraph 11
11. Regrets the absence of country- specific recommendations related to Member States’ unlawful use of surveillance spyware technologies, such as Pegasus or Predator, in spite of the concrete revelations on, and increasing evidence of, their use against journalists, politicians, law enforcement officials, diplomats, lawyers, business people, civil society actors and other actors; is extremely concerned about the related risks to civil society, democracy, the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights posed by national governments’ uncontrolled use of spyware; regrets the lack of cooperation by some Member States’ authorities with Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware; recalls the importance of ensuring an enabling environment for civil society and stresses the links between civic space and rule of law issues; commends the Commission’s efforts to include civic space issues and calls on it to further develop civic space issues in future reports and to formulate specific recommendations to Member States in this regard;
Amendment 103 #
Paragraph 12
12. Reiterates its call on the Commission to expand the scope of its reporting to cover all values enshrined in Article 2 TEU; reiterates the intrinsic link between the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights; urges the Commission and the Council to immediately enter into negotiations with Parliament on an interinstitutional agreement on an EU mechanism on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights, which should cover the full scope of Article 2 TEU values; deplores that human rights violation on migrants happening at the EU external borders are not part of the assessment made by the Commission;
Amendment 120 #
Paragraph 15
15. Reiterates the recommendations to the Commission to differentiate between systemic and individual breaches, and to accompany the country-specific recommendations with deadlines for implementation, targets and concrete actions to be taken; is concerned that biased distribution of funding in some countries impacts civil society organisations (CSOs) working on rights of vulnerable groups or working in general for causes that governments do not support; encourages a thorough assessment of these issues in all countries covered by the report and stresses the need for country recommendations addressing these issues; urges the Commission to consider direct management of EU funds so as to also ensure that end beneficiaries, including CSOs working with vulnerable groups, receive EU funding intended for them;