Parliament calls for stronger protection of dissidents in EU
Transnational Repression
Tomorrow, MEPs will adopt a report on countering Transnational Repression, which was drafted under the lead of Greens/EFA MEP and European Parliament rapporteur Hannah Neumann.
Transnational repression refers to the persecution of critics, dissidents and journalists by authoritarian regimes such as Russia, Iran or China beyond their own borders, including inside Europe.
The report sets out concrete proposals for how the EU can better protect targeted people, close loopholes in laws and institutions, and hold those responsible accountable.
MEP Hannah Neumann, European Parliament rapporteur and Greens/EFA Coordinator in the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), comments:
“For the first time, the European Parliament is calling for comprehensive action to better protect dissidents and regime critics abroad from persecution, intimidation and harassment.
“Authoritarian regimes are no longer only trying to silence critics at home. They are surveilling, threatening and targeting people here in Europe, often working together with organised crime. This report is a first step in answering this growing problem.
“So far, political responsibility has been too fragmented. Transnational repression sits at the crossroads of internal affairs, foreign policy, digital policy and justice. Responsibilities are spread across numerous authorities and institutions at national and EU level. This creates gaps that authoritarian regimes deliberately exploit. With this report, we want to close them.
“The report lays the foundation for a coordinated European strategy against transnational repression. Europe must close the loopholes in our systems and institutions that authoritarian regimes use to carry out their repression. We have to better protect those targeted and work closely with diaspora communities.
“Transnational repression must not go unpunished. Those responsible have to be held to account, both the perpetrators and the regimes behind them.”
More:
European Parliament press conference on the vote tomorrow at 15:00
Livestream of the vote tomorrow from 12:30
