On Monday 25 June, the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee (LIBE) called on member states to ensure that aid provided to migrants for humanitarian purposes should not be criminalised, as was the case in Hungary recently for NGOs for example (see EUROPE 12048).
“The EU should ensure that helping migrants for humanitarian reasons is not punishable as a crime”, MEPs say in a non-binding resolution adopted by a large majority (38 for, 16 against and 2 abstentions).
The resolution aims to rebalance the European directive (2002/90/EC) of 2002 which authorises criminalisation of such aid. MEPs seek to limit the “unintended consequences” and emphasise the fact that European legislation also authorises member states to make an exception to criminalisation in the case of actions of a “humanitarian” nature.
Members of the committee regret that “few member states have incorporated the ‘humanitarian assistance’ exemption in their national laws”. They call upon them to do so “to ensure that individuals and civil society organisations who assist migrants for humanitarian reasons are not prosecuted for doing so”.
The European Commission, for its part, is invited to adopt precise guidelines for the member states, specifying what kinds of aid must not be prosecuted in order to ensure that the law is applied in a clearer and more uniform fashion.
Parliament will take a stance on this text during the plenary session early July. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)