Progress: Procedure completed
Legal Basis:
RoP 144Events
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the Russian ‘foreign agents’ law.
The text adopted in plenary was tabled as a joint resolution by the EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens/EFA and ECR groups.
In July 2012, Russia adopted a law on ‘foreign agents’ requiring Russian NGOs to register with the Russian Ministry of Justice as ‘organisations performing the functions of foreign agents’ if they receive foreign funding and engage in activities vaguely described as ‘political activities’. In June 2014, the law was amended to allow the Ministry of Justice to register NGOs as ‘foreign agents’ on its own initiative. In November 2017, the scope of the law was extended to impose the use of the ‘foreign agents’ label on any foreign media directly or indirectly receiving foreign funding. The latest amendments to the law on ‘foreign agents’, which extend the status of ‘foreign agents’ to include private persons, including bloggers and independent journalists, were signed into law on 2 December 2019 by President Vladimir Putin.
The law imposes specific requirements for registration, accounting, and labelling of publications, and makes non-compliance a criminal offence, including the possibility of sanctions with heavy administrative fines or imprisonment of up to two years.
Legislative restrictions and targeted prosecutions under the law on foreign agents in Russia have taken on more repressive forms in recent months. The law on ‘foreign agents’ is part of a broader campaign to stifle dissent, opposition, and civil society across Russia.
Repealing the ‘foreign agents’ law
Parliament strongly opposes the Russian authorities’ methods of using the power of the state to suppress freedom of expression and speech and thereby instil fear in society and called on the Russian authorities to support the impartiality of media channels and to improve the safety and working environment of journalists in Russia, including by advancing their professional skills by making use of existing international programmes.
Parliament called on the Russian authorities to immediately repeal the law on ‘foreign agents’ and to bring the existing legislation into line with Russia’s constitution and its obligations under international law. Russia should stop deliberately creating an atmosphere that is hostile to civil society.
Members considered that this law and the excessive use of fines and settlements against the media, human rights organisations and civil society to be deliberately aimed at forcing them to focus their resources on paying fines and judicial defence, and thus to limit freedom of expression.
They called on the Russian authorities to establish a framework for activities of NGOs that is clear, coherent and consistent and is in line with European and international standards, in particular by using clear definitions, by avoiding the use of stigmatising language such as ‘foreign agents’ or discriminatory legal provisions related to sources of funding, and by preventing the criminal prosecution of NGOs, media and bloggers or of individual persons carrying out activities for NGOs or media.
The EU is encouraged to:
continue to closely monitor the human rights situation in the Russian Federation and to continue monitoring court cases involving civil society organisations and activists; raise the matter of the law on ‘foreign agents’ in the institutions of the Council of Europe, primarily in the Committee of Ministers and in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE); continuously call on Russia to repeal or amend all laws incompatible with international standards;
The VP/HR is called on to:
draw up a new and comprehensive EU-Russia strategy aimed at strengthening peace and stability; use every possibility to support civil society that promotes democratic values, rule of law, fundamental freedoms and human rights in Russia and to strengthen people-to-people contacts with the citizens of Russia; raise concerns about the law on ‘foreign agents’ in their contacts, meetings and communications with Russian representatives, including at the highest levels, and asks them to report back to Parliament on their exchanges with the Russian authorities.
Documents
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0258/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0259/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0260/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0262/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0263/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0267/2019
- Joint motion for resolution: RC-B9-0258/2019
- Decision by Parliament: T9-0108/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0258/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0259/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0260/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0262/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0263/2019
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0267/2019
- Joint motion for resolution: RC-B9-0258/2019
Activities
- Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS
- Phil BENNION
- Anna FOTYGA
- Michael GAHLER
- Seán KELLY
- Tonino PICULA
- Bronis ROPĖ
- Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ
- Antony HOOK
- David LEGA
- Ramona STRUGARIU
- Viola VON CRAMON-TAUBADEL
- Anna Júlia DONÁTH
- Heidi HAUTALA
- Sandra KALNIETE
Institutional Motions (2)
- Andrey KOVATCHEV
Institutional Motions (2)
- Zdzisław KRASNODĘBSKI
- Antonio LÓPEZ-ISTÚRIZ WHITE
Institutional Motions (2)
- David McALLISTER
Institutional Motions (2)
- Eva MAYDELL
Institutional Motions (2)
- Roberta METSOLA
Institutional Motions (2)
- Luděk NIEDERMAYER
Institutional Motions (2)
- Kati PIRI
Institutional Motions (2)
- Jiří POSPÍŠIL
- María Soraya RODRÍGUEZ RAMOS
Institutional Motions (2)
- Frédérique RIES
Institutional Motions (2)
- Romana TOMC
Institutional Motions (2)
- Inese VAIDERE
Institutional Motions (2)
- Hilde VAUTMANS
Institutional Motions (2)
- Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ
Institutional Motions (2)
- Željana ZOVKO
Institutional Motions (2)
- Milan ZVER
Institutional Motions (2)
- Sergey LAGODINSKY
Institutional Motions (2)
- Nathalie LOISEAU
Institutional Motions (2)
- José Ramón BAUZÁ DÍAZ
Institutional Motions (2)
- Vladimír BILČÍK
Institutional Motions (2)
- Olivier CHASTEL
Institutional Motions (2)
- Katalin CSEH
Institutional Motions (2)
- Christophe GRUDLER
Institutional Motions (2)
- Bernard GUETTA
Institutional Motions (2)
- Arba KOKALARI
Institutional Motions (2)
- Andrius KUBILIUS
- Hannah NEUMANN
Institutional Motions (2)
- Jan-Christoph OETJEN
Institutional Motions (2)
- Dragoş PÎSLARU
Institutional Motions (2)
- Catherine ROWETT
- Susana SOLÍS PÉREZ
Institutional Motions (2)
- Tomas TOBÉ
Institutional Motions (2)
- Irène TOLLERET
Institutional Motions (2)
- Marie-Pierre VEDRENNE
Institutional Motions (2)
- Ondřej KOVAŘÍK
Institutional Motions (2)
- Magdalena ADAMOWICZ
Institutional Motions (2)
- Sylvie BRUNET
Institutional Motions (2)
- Jérémy DECERLE
Institutional Motions (2)
- Karen MELCHIOR
Institutional Motions (2)
- Chrysoula ZACHAROPOULOU
Institutional Motions (2)
- Engin EROGLU
Institutional Motions (2)
- Abir AL-SAHLANI
Institutional Motions (2)
- Malik AZMANI
Institutional Motions (2)
- Radka MAXOVÁ
Institutional Motions (2)
- Monica SEMEDO
Institutional Motions (2)
- Klára DOBREV
Plenary Speeches (2)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Maria WALSH
Institutional Motions (2)
- Gilles BOYER
Institutional Motions (2)
- Ivars IJABS
Institutional Motions (2)
- Reinhard BÜTIKOFER
Institutional Motions (1)
- Maria GRAPINI
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Stelios KOULOGLOU
Institutional Motions (1)
- Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Jacek SARYUSZ-WOLSKI
Institutional Motions (1)
- Helmut SCHOLZ
Institutional Motions (1)
- Ivan ŠTEFANEC
Institutional Motions (1)
- Ruža TOMAŠIĆ
Institutional Motions (1)
- Miguel URBÁN CRESPO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Jadwiga WIŚNIEWSKA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Roberts ZĪLE
Institutional Motions (1)
- Clare DALY
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Thierry MARIANI
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Rasmus ANDRESEN
Institutional Motions (1)
- Konstantinos ARVANITIS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Ioan-Rareş BOGDAN
Institutional Motions (1)
- Manuel BOMPARD
Institutional Motions (1)
- Gina DOWDING
Institutional Motions (1)
- Claire FOX
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2016/11/22 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Henrike HAHN
Institutional Motions (1)
- Assita KANKO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Niyazi KIZILYÜREK
Institutional Motions (1)
- Anne-Sophie PELLETIER
Institutional Motions (1)
- Eugenia RODRÍGUEZ PALOP
Institutional Motions (1)
- Hermann TERTSCH
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Idoia VILLANUEVA RUIZ
Institutional Motions (1)
- Nikolaj VILLUMSEN
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Alexandr VONDRA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Veronika VRECIONOVÁ
Institutional Motions (1)
- Charlie WEIMERS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Michal WIEZIK
Institutional Motions (1)
- Stéphane BIJOUX
Institutional Motions (1)
- Silvia MODIG
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Moritz KÖRNER
Institutional Motions (1)
- Irina VON WIESE
Institutional Motions (1)
- Rasa JUKNEVIČIENĖ
Institutional Motions (1)
- Liudas MAŽYLIS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Miroslav RADAČOVSKÝ
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Pierfrancesco MAJORINO
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Attila ARA-KOVÁCS
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Raphaël GLUCKSMANN
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Eugen TOMAC
Plenary Speeches (1)
- 2019/12/19 The Russian "Foreign Agents" Law
- Gheorghe-Vlad NISTOR
Institutional Motions (1)
Votes
RC-B9-0258/2019 - § 13 #
History
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