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Yesterday the European Parliament rejected Tibor Navracsics nominated by the Hungarian government to become the Commissioner of Education, Culture, Youth and Citizenship. He will certainly have to find another portfolio. The reason? His record in a government accused of attacking civil liberties and civil rights.

I can only strongly support the Parliament for standing up for its values and previous positions on the Hungarian situation. However, I cannot stop thinking that the EU can put in place a preventive and support mechanism to ensure a constant enjoyment of human rights before having to sanction those attacking and deteriorating those rights.

The problem at the European level is that decision makers mainly make use of last resort and sanction instruments: the sanction from the Parliament of Commissioner-designate, at the level of the Heads of States or the use of Article 7 of the Treaty that suspend the voting rights of member state in the Council. Moving from a last resort approach to a supportive and preventive one seems difficult for the Council, which is currently having challenging discussions on the Commission’s proposal to strengthen the rule of law. Member states are not eager to have the EU more involved in their human rights issues.

As Social Platform we want to go beyond the Commission's proposal to strengthen the rule of law. Together with other 50 European NGOs from the Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN) we support the adoption of an EU internal Human Rights Strategy. We want strategic objectives and action plans in all member states to ensure the full implementation of human rights. Such as strategy would not only ensure more coherence between EU external and internal human rights policy, it would also serve as a preventive mechanism before sanctions. Finally I also believe that a strategy should politically and financially support civil society organisations in countries facing attacks on civil liberties. A strategy can address the human rights situation from the top and the grassroots: warning government attacking civil liberties while supporting human rights advocates. Such approach can avoid the stalemate in which we are with simply sanctions: Mr Navracsics will have another portfolio, while civil society organisations in Hungary will still lack support from the EU.

This is why last week, HRDN and Social Platform, representing a broad coalition of 100 European networks, met with the Chair of the Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Claude Moraes to discuss the European Parliament support of such strategy. We also met for the first time with the Council Working Party on Fundamental Rights, Citizens Rights and Free Movement of Persons (FREMP) to present the coalition and our objective to get a strategy. We will continue our advocacy and it will be a key pillar of our work in 2015.

The Article 3 of the Treaty calls on promoting peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples, and it is far above any other Treaty article. Therefore, I believe that we as people living in the EU deserve all means to be taken, including a strategy, to enable the enjoyment of our human rights.

Let’s engage!

Pierre Baussand – Director