The European Parliament’s various political groups are expected to clash over the fate of NGOs and the definition of humanitarian assistance by 25 April, when they table their first amendments on the report by Birgit Sippel (S&D, German) regarding the directive on the facilitation of unauthorised entry, residence and transit.
This draft, published at the end of March (see EUROPE 13611/5), was first discussed by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on Tuesday 8 April and, unsurprisingly, the PfE and ECR groups rejected Germany’s choice to explicitly exclude humanitarian assistance from the criminal offences covered by the Commission directive. They wanted to leave it up to the Member States to define the response to be given to NGOs, and also did not want to define the notion of humanitarian assistance.
They also criticised Germany’s decision to reduce certain maximum sentences for offences, with MEP Nikola Bartůšek (PfE, Czech) seeing this as “an invitation to criminals” and smuggling networks.
Poland’s Jacek Dawid Ozdoba (ECR) spoke of the role of NGOs in the instrumentalisation of migrants on the country’s eastern borders, saying that they “served Russia’s narrative” to destabilise the EU.
These positions were radically different from those defended by the Greens/EFA, The Left or Renew Europe. The shadow rapporteur, Fabienne Keller, represented on Tuesday by her Dutch colleague Abir Al-Sahlani, will be working on amendments to define the crime of ‘facilitating’ (illegal entry) so as “not to criminalise NGOs”. It is absolutely essential to fight against traffickers and not against “anyone who helps a migrant in danger”, said the French MEP, recalling the obligation to help.
For Erik Marquardt (Greens/EFA, German), the imperative is to help these migrants, whatever their status, when they need it. It is necessary to “help all these migrants who are victims of instrumentalisation”, and the group will be tabling amendments to this effect. The Left will also seek to strengthen the non-criminalisation of humanitarian assistance and to obtain more proportionate criminal sanctions.
The German S&D MEP had presented her draft report in advance, wanting to target the directive at high-level crimes and with financial gains to be defined. Recalling that 100 criminal or administrative proceedings concerned NGOs in 2023 in the Member States, she added to her draft an exemption for humanitarian assistance, which does not exist in the original text or in the mandate of the Council of the EU.
She has also removed legal risks, such as the fact that the Commission wanted to criminalise the intention to cause harm, which is not compatible with legal certainty. She also wants to amend the Commission’s proposal to create aggravated felony offences, which do not yet exist in EU criminal law. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)