Speeches

Madam President, we definitely all agree that media freedom and pluralism are the cornerstones of democracy, not less than the rule of law or respect for human rights. And it’s absolutely unacceptable if those who hold a position of power or have great financial resources use their power against those who want to speak out. In most cases, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) are a direct breach of the freedom of expression and information, and is especially worrying to see cases where SLAPPs are funded by state budgets. We have to be aware that this particular method of silencing opponents – SLAPPs – is only one out of many others which governments can use to get rid of criticism and to kill pluralism. Yes, also in the European Union. In some Member States, like my home country, Estonia, we have a wonderful practice of publishing an annual report of the security police, where you can find the names of activists whose views and activities are claimed to be dangerous or even undermine the constitutional order. In many cases, in most cases, these claims were never proved by court decisions. And conversely, those who find their names in this report have to go to court and prove that these accusations are false, and this reverse burden of proof is in fact the same as the case of SLAPPs: you have to spend time and money to prove you are not guilty – in fact, to protect the same freedom of expression and pluralism. I did it 10 years ago and I won. But many of those who were mentioned by the security police during the past two and a half decades never became active again. They’re scared. I strongly believe that in this House we have to pay attention and to fight all possible means to silence people and create the only right narrative to follow.

Mr President, President von der Leyen has made a big promise today to women and girls in Europe. She will propose a law to combat gender—based violence: from prevention to protection and effective prosecution, both online and offline. That is a big promise, considering that already in October 2015, the Commission had promised a framework for combating violence against women. The EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention is still on hold to this day, which is absolutely shameful. And of course, we would hope that the Commission would not repeat the mistakes of the past; we do not want promises, we want action. This report asks for the inclusion of gender—based violence in the list of crimes under Article 83(1) TFEU. This would only be one small step in the right direction. What women and girls need is a comprehensive legal framework which focuses on prevention through an education programme directed at both boys and girls, protection measures, psychological support, shelters and access to social housing, specialist support for children, and legal clarification of custody and visitation rights for children, severe consequences for forced marriages, stalking, including cyber—stalking, and denial of reproductive rights and denial of access to reproductive health care. The Commission should also bring pressure to bear on Member States to properly implement already existing legislation. And here we Members of the Parliament have a role to play. It is not enough to vote for the report; we can and we have also to put pressure on our own governments to educate our people, to make it clear that we are caring not just here in the Hemicycle, but also in real everyday life.