Human Rights and Democracy in the world and the European Union’s policy on the matter – annual report 2025

Tabled by Matthieu Valet, Paolo Borchia, Mieke Andriese, Silvia Sardone, Raffaele Stancanelli, António Tânger Corrêa, Roberto Vannacci, Isabella Tovaglieri, Nikola Bartůšek, Hermann Tertsch, Jorge Martín Frías, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión

43. Reiterates Removed: its support for increasing the Added: that the GHRSR must remain a strictly targeted instrument for the Union’s external action, to be used solely against countries, individuals, and entities that directly engage in hostile acts against one or more Member States of the European Union, or in response to clear and serious human rights abuses; stresses that unanimity in the Council must be maintained for all decisions related to the adoption of sanctions under the CFSP, in accordance with Article 24(1) of the Treaty on European Union, so that the national interests and foreign policy priorities of individual Member States are not impacted against their will; warns that any move towards qualified majority voting in the context of the GHRSR constitutes a direct challenge to the sovereignty of Member States and the intergovernmental nature of the Union’s external action; further warns against any ideological or expansive use of the Removed: GHRSR, along with other ad hoc sanctions frameworks, as a key political EU policy tool promoting the rule of law, democracy and human rights, which complements other judicial instruments; calls for the EU and its Member States to expand the scope of the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime (EU Magnitsky Act), to include acts of corruption – as already requested several times by Parliament – and systematic listings for perpetrators of transnational repression, including those targeting diaspora communities; recalls, however, the limitations and slowness of the current decision-making system for these instruments’ activation and the loopholes in enforcement mechanisms that allow circumvention; reiterates its call for the introduction of qualified majority voting for decisions on the GHRSR; calls for an equal, principled and complete enforcement of sanctions and for circumventions to be tackled; Added: GHRSR that is disconnected from the Union’s core strategic priorities;

Wording as published by the EP, in English. PE782.000v01-00