Ausführliche Sitzungsberichte

Dienstag, 27. Februar 2024 - Straßburg

7.5. Schutz von Journalisten und Menschenrechtsverteidigern vor offenkundig unbegründeten oder missbräuchlichen Gerichtsverfahren (A9-0223/2023 - Tiemo Wölken) (Abstimmung)

– Vor der Abstimmung:

  Virginijus Sinkevičius, Member of the Commission. – Mr President, Members of the Parliament, the Commission takes note of the rules on international jurisdiction and applicable law the European Parliament proposed in its mandate for the negotiations on the proposal for a directive on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings.

The Commission agrees on the importance of rules on jurisdiction and applicable law in the context of a comprehensive protection against abusive litigation in SLAPP cases. For this reason, in its recent legal studies on the Brussels Ia and Rome II Regulations, the Commission has specifically addressed these SLAPP-related matters.

However, such changes should be made in the horizontal Regulations covering international jurisdiction and applicable law to avoid a fragmentation of these rules across various instruments, and they should be proposed with a careful assessment of the impact of such changes.

Consequently, the Commission will continue the already-ongoing review process concerning the Brussels Ia and Rome II Regulations. It’s the firm intention of the Commission to issue application reports on both these instruments with a particular focus on SLAPP in the near future in order to facilitate the political decisions on their revision.

  Tiemo Wölken, rapporteur. – Mr President, dear colleagues, SLAPPs are strategic lawsuits against public participation. They are a form of legal harassment and abuse of the justice system. They are used against journalists, NGOs and human rights defenders by powerful individuals and organisations who try to avoid public scrutiny. This is why we need this Directive so badly, and with today’s adoption, we will, for the first time ever, have a definition of SLAPP cases to help our courts to tackle them.

We will have an early-dismissal mechanism to cut lengthy proceedings, save costs, and shorten the victim’s suffering. We will give victims the possibility to get reimbursements of all costs, including the legal representation. We will be able to shield victims against third-party SLAPPs. And finally, we will have a definition of cross-border cases – and this is a crucial point, because the broad definition impacts how many cases will fall under the scope of this instrument, and therefore how many victims will profit from the SLAPP Directive. We made sure that as many victims as possible will benefit from the new rules.

Dear colleagues, just last year we saw a record-breaking number of SLAPP cases – 160 cases – where journalists may have been deprived of their fundamental rights. At the same time, these 160 cases are a threat to our democracy, to the rule of law, and seriously undermine the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, information, and association. So SLAPPs run counter to our European values, and we stop them today.

This is a major win, and I want to thank again everyone who worked so hard on this file to achieve this outcome.