David Martin (S&D). – Mr President, the EU rightly and regularly condemns state intimidation and violence against journalists, dissidents and human rights defenders. Yet, as we have heard in this debate, our Member States and companies continue to provide the very tools that facilitate such harassment to the very governments that undertake such repression. The gap in our dual—use legislation has allowed this to happen.

If the Council accepts the excellent text we will adopt tomorrow, exports of dual—use items such as surveillance technologies will no longer be possible where they could be used for human rights violations. In this report, Parliament is sending a strong signal to the Council that the human rights dimension is a priority for us – I hope that it is a message that they will get – as is ensuring uniform implementation of the regulation throughout all of our Member States. It is clear at the moment that all 28 are not committed to the same level of implementation of the existing regulation. I hope that will change with the new regulation.

We also need countries, like France and Italy in particular, to make licensing data publicly available. It is unacceptable to hide behind the shield of privacy in this area. As the departure date, sadly, for the United Kingdom from the EU is approaching, I also hope that the United Kingdom will equip itself with similar rules and keep up its cooperation with the European Union on these matters after it leaves the European Union.

Finally, I would like to thank the Commissioner and the Commission for such a good proposal and my colleagues, particularly Mr Buchner, who I think did an excellent job steering this legislation through Parliament.