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The EU does not recognise the sovereignty of Israel over the territories the country has occupied since 1967 (OTs) and applies a policy of differentiation vis-à-vis Israel and the OTs. In areas such as trade, origin labelling and EU-funded programmes, the EU has put measures in place to ensure that Israeli settlements in the OTs are not treated as part of Israel.

Likewise, the EU’s 2011 adequacy decision for Israel, which allows for the free flow of personal data, states in Article 2 that it should be applied in accordance with international law, i.e. excluding the OTs.

However, Israel treats the settlements as part of its territory for most purposes, including data transfer.

In this letter, sixty MEPs call on the Members of the Committee on the Election of Judges to the European Court of Human Rights to reject the candidacy of Aleksander Stępkowski, co-founder and former president of Ordo Iuris, to the ECHR, which goes against the very principles of this honourable institution.

Between 2007 and 2020, the European Union (EU) and its member states provided no less than 11.6 billion euros in aid to the DRC, making the country the fifth largest recipient of EU aid in the world. The EU, as a major donor to the DRC, therefore has a crucial role to play in encouraging transparent governance of the country while ensuring that corrupt funds do not enter the European market.

In this written questions, MEPs inquiry the Commission on the proposed two bills by the Hungarian Government to amend the Constitution, which include provisions such as ‘the mother is female, the father is male’, ‘children will be raised with a Christian interpretation of gender roles’ and ‘the gender of a person is defined as the one established at birth. 

In October 2020, a group of media outlets published evidence about Frontex vessels involved in human rights violations in the Aegean Sea. This raised serious questions about the EU agency’s denial of knowledge of or active contribution to pushbacks. The evidence shows how Frontex witnessed the Hellenic Coast Guard conducting pushbacks but also how the EU agency’s was actively involved in these activities. The situation at the Croatian-Bosnian border, where pushbacks and violence by the Croatian authorities are reported constantly, also raises questions on the involvement of Frontex in these breaches of human rights. In theory, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/1896) foresees Frontex’s obligation to terminate activities in case of violations of fundamental rights, as well as several mechanisms to prevent such breaches.

The panelists were: 

Prof. Nora Markard, Professor for International Public Law and International Human Rights, University of Münster Matthias Oel, Director - Borders, Interoperability and Innovation, Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission Andreas I. Pottakis, Greek Ombudsman Tineke Strik, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA, rapporteur of the new European Parliament Frontex Scrutiny Working Group

Moderation: Neda Noraie-Kia, Head of Migration Policy Europe, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Thessaloniki Office

Front-LEX and the Legal Centre Lesvos submitted this request for action on the part of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX or the Agency), pursuant to Article 265 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Front-LEX and the Legal Centre Lesvos invite the Agency to consider its position vis-à-vis its activities in the host Member State Greece and to immediately suspend or terminate all its activities in the Aegean Sea Region, in compliance with The Agency’s obligations under Article 46 (4) of European Border and Coast Guard (EBCG) Regulation. 

In this letter, Frontex Executive Director presents  the first Working Arrangement that is signed between Frontex and the Republic of Guinea, which establishes the framework for cooperation with the Guinean counterparts in a number of areas of the Agency’s mandate.

In this letter forty MEPs request full information on the status and interim results of the preparation of the legal basis for the arming of Frontex. 

In this letter, eight MEPs urge the European Commission to address the issue of pushbacks in the European Union as a matter of priority and to do everything possible to prevent these incidents and take appropriate action.

The Collective of Sahara Human Rights Defenders – CODESA has collected signatories for its urgent appeal calling for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to deploy a permanent mission to Western Sahara for the protection of Saharawi civilians.

The campaign started on 20 January 2021 collecting signatures on the appeal below from
Parliamentarians, NGOs, international figures, political parties, trade unions, women and youth
organization, and global civil society groups. 

The Appeal was also signed by 150 Parlamentarians from the European Parliament, UK Parliament, French Parliament, Spanish Parliament, Swedish Parliament, Swiss Parliament and the Mauritanian Parliament as well as 177 organizations from 41 countries around the world representing all
continents including international civil society groups, institutes, trade unions and political parties.