Tiemo Wölken (S&D, German) presented his report on the anti-SLAPPs directive to the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on Tuesday 21 March. The main ambition of the proposal is to broaden the scope of the legislation while strengthening support for those affected by SLAPPs.
“The Parliament must adopt a very clear position in favour of the defence of victims”, the rapporteur insisted, critical of “certain” proposals put forward by the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council on the text (see EUROPE 13135/16).
Broadening the definition of cross-border
Political groups had noted in an earlier debate that cases without a cross-border character constitute the vast majority of ‘SLAPPs’ (see EUROPE 13130/15). Thus, in order to extend the scope of the directive while respecting the competences of the EU (which cannot express itself on strictly national matters), the rapporteur has introduced a broader definition of the notion of ‘cross-border’.
Specifically, he considers that a case can be considered cross border if the act of participation in the public debate in question is “accessible via electronic means or otherwise in more than one Member State”.
Support for victims
In addition, the draft report strengthens support measures for victims of SLAPPs. On the one hand, it calls on Member States to provide information, legal aid and “financial assistance and support measures, including psychological support” to the persons concerned.
On the other hand, the rapporteur considers that the victim of a procedure deemed to be abusive should be able to obtain compensation “without the need to initiate separate legal proceedings to that end”. Similarly, he calls on Member States to ensure that the costs of legal representation are “fully covered”, even where national legislation limits it to the statutory fee tables.
“Manifestly unfounded” versus “abusive procedures”
While the draft report was generally welcomed, various members and the rapporteurs of the Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE), Ramona Strugariu (Renew Europe, Romanian), and Culture (CULT) Committee, Alexis Georgoulis (The Left, Greek), insisted on the need to remove the “dichotomy” between “manifestly unfounded complaints”, which can be dismissed early, and “abusive procedures”.
“We do not foresee a possibility for an early dismissal [in the case of abusive procedures], because it would need thorough evaluation by the judges in cases where there is a partly founded claim”, Wölken defended, while saying he was “open to finding a solution that helps as many affected people as possible”.
However, the text also addresses other aspects, such as the establishment of national and European registers of SLAPP cases and encouraging professional associations to adopt ethical rules and sanctions to deter abusive lawsuits by legal professionals.
Read the draft report: https://aeur.eu/f/5x1 (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)