On Thursday, November 27th, the European Parliament voted to pass its version of a ‘Foreign Agents’ Directive, more formally known as the Directive on interest representation services on behalf of third countries (the Directive). The Directive is an attempt by the European Commission (the Commission) to address efforts by state actors outside the EU to undermine democracy in Europe.
ARTICLE 19 acknowledges that the text approved by the European Parliament is an improvement on the text that was originally proposed by the Commission, which we have criticised previously. The current version strengthens protections for academic freedom and media freedom, contains multiple references to fundamental rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (the Charter) and reprioritises the Directive on lobbying services, excluding grants. However, these improvements fail to make the text to comply with international human rights standards.
ARTICLE 19 therefore reiterates our unequivocal position against the existence of any such EU-wide proposal to address efforts by state actors outside the EU to undermine democracy in Europe.
While we share the Commission’s concerns about the possible impact of ‘foreign interference’ on democracy and the information space in the EU and beyond, we firmly believe that the proposed Directive is the wrong instrument to address them.
Such a Directive, if approved, would infringe on the right to freedom of association and the right to freedom of expression. Namely,
- general transparency on its own is not a legitimate aim for restrictions, and no recognised legitimate aim is convincingly put forward in the proposal.
- the concept of ‘interest representation’ is overbroad and, as such, doesn’t pass the test of legality.
- the onerous compliance requirements and sanctions do not satisfy the test of necessity and proportionality and would produce a chilling effect on NGOs’ operations.
In the past, ARTICLE 19 has criticised restrictions on NGOs (e.g. in Russia, Hungary and joined statements in other countries, e.g. Georgia). Although those laws are different from the proposal of the Directive, we are concerned that the Directive would not only be problematic on its own but could be instrumentalised by governments beyond the EU to restrict civic space.
ARTICLE 19 urges the European Commission to scrap the proposed Directive and to ensure that any measures to counter foreign efforts to undermine democracy in the EU do not come at the expense of human rights.
A thriving civil society that is free to seek funding without stigma and freely criticise EU policy is essential to pluralism and uninhibited debate on issues of public interest in a democratic society.