Changes from plenary report to adopted text

18. Believes that the next parliamentary term and the establishment of the future Commission should be an opportunity to strengthen the framework of interinstitutional relations between Parliament, the EEAS and the Commission, including EU delegations, in order to enhance parliamentary diplomacy and strengthen the EU’s toolbox for external action;

19. Calls, in particular, for Parliament’s oversight over the work under the EU foreign and security policy activities to be reinforced by enhancing the level of accountability and the transparency of the EEAS and the Commission’s external services; highlights, in this context, the necessity of updating the 2010 Declaration on Political Accountability to redefine relations between the EEAS and Parliament;

20. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to genuinely involve Parliament in the implementation and scrutiny of matters of strategic relevance in EU foreign affairs, including the application of restrictive measures, as well as in the scrutiny of external financing instruments;

21. Insists on Parliament’s right to information on CFSP matters under Article 36 TEU, including timely access to reports, country strategies and other confidential information guiding the conduct of the EU CFSP; stresses, in this respect, the importance of finalising, as soon as possible, the update of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 20 November 2002 between the European Parliament and the Council concerning access by the European Parliament to sensitive information of the Council in the field of security and defence policy;

22. Stresses that Parliament’s scrutiny function and power to monitor the negotiation and implementation of international agreements should grant it a critical role in shaping the Union’s engagement with non-EU countries and international organisations, and its overall action in the international arena, which would also enable the EU to promote gender mainstreaming and climate diplomacy in international relations; deplores, in this regard, so-called informal or ad hoc arrangements that do not require Parliament’s consent and that therefore undermine Parliament’s authority as co-legislator and its oversight role;

23. Takes the view that EU ambassadors in strategic countries and EU special representatives should only be confirmed after a positive evaluation from Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs;

24. Calls for the more systematic participation of the chairs of Parliament’s external committees in high-level CFSP meetings and events, including the Foreign Affairs Council; calls for joint EEAS, Commission and Parliament delegations to major multilateral and regional gatherings;

25. Insists that all key strategic policy documents adopted by the Commission and the Council in relation to the conduct of EU external policy should be drafted in consultation with Parliament and should integrate Parliament’s role and input therein;

26. Calls for the strengthening of Parliament’s relations with the Member States’ national parliaments, which are well-placed bodies to act as a relay towards Member States’ executive branches; underlines therefore that the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on the CFSP/CSDP and the inter-parliamentary conferences held annually by the subcommittee on Human Rights provide an important forum for the exchange of information and best practices between national parliaments and the European Parliament in the areas concerned and should be reinforced;

27. Considers that Parliament can play a unique role in bringing EU foreign policy closer to European citizens and in strengthening its democratic legitimacy, including by engaging with sub-state entities, such as regional governments and parliaments, and thus allowing multilevel diplomacy under the respective legal and institutional frameworks for EU and Member State foreign policy to feed into and build on EU-level external action;

28. Reiterates its call to develop autonomous EU diplomacy determined by a common diplomatic culture from an EU perspective and underlines Parliament’s role in this regard; considers that the implementation of Parliament’s pilot project on the creation of a European Diplomatic Academy, and especially its future and permanent structure, is a concrete step forward on this; calls for guarantees on Parliament's permanent participation and active involvement in the future managing or governing bodies of the European Diplomatic Academy, as well as in its training programmes and activities;

29. Takes the view that, in the context of backsliding on human rights and democracy worldwide, Parliament has a specific role to play in defending rules-based multilateralism, democracy and the rule of law, in promoting human rights and political pluralism, in countering disinformation and foreign interference in non-EU countries and in helping democratically elected parliaments globally to consolidate their institutional roles and internal working methods through targeted programmes; notes that MEPs can address more sensitive issues, such as human rights violations, make public statements, pursue public or private avenues for communication or engage with local partners when the space for traditional diplomacy is more restricted;

30. Highlights the specific role of parliamentary bodies in helping partner countries and, in particular, enlargement and potential candidate countries in the Western Balkans and the Eastern neighbourhood; calls to strengthen their role in the EU accession process, given the specific and key role national parliaments play in the required reform process through, among other things, legislative approximation, oversight and outreach to citizens; recalls the need for EU delegations to actively support such inter-parliamentary cooperation in candidate and potential candidate countries;

31. Welcomes innovative approaches such as the committee-to-committee cooperation recently launched between the European Parliament and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and encourages the development of further initiatives in this field, given the political importance of the enlargement process;

32. Reiterates its call to enhance the EU’s institutional capacities for preventive diplomacy, conflict prevention and mediation, and believes that Parliament can provide expertise and a substantial contribution through its bodies and actions in this area, including by engaging with early warning mechanisms and on-site visits;

33. Stresses that the wide inter-parliamentary network that Parliament has developed through its standing delegations and multilateral assemblies offers a prime vehicle to discuss and coordinate positions with international partners in multilateral forums, for example in relation to UN resolutions, gender mainstreaming, climate diplomacy or positions at the G20, as well as to clarify the intentions of the EU to partners and promote its actions; highlights Parliament’s significant contribution to the work of multilateral forums through its involvement in, inter alia, G7 and G20 parliamentary summits, and in meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union;

34. Highlights the role of the European Parliament in globally advancing gender equality, including the fight against femicide and gender-based violence, and LGBTI rights in the EU’s external action; points out the importance of parliamentarians in promoting gender sensitiveness across EU external relations via awareness raising, capacity building and the sharing of good practices, including, but not limited to, the added value of ensuring gender-balanced parliaments and a gender perspective in the functioning of parliamentary bodies; calls for Parliament to further strengthen this relevant dimension of its parliamentary diplomacy in its interactions with partner countries;

35. Takes the view that, in the light of Sustainable Development Goal 5 (achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls), Parliament must play a significant role in achieving key strategic gender equality benchmarks;

36. Underlines Parliament’s advocacy work for the ratification and implementation of relevant UN and other international conventions and optional protocols, such as the Paris Agreement and the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence;

Team Europe: Parliament as a foreign policy partner

37. Considers that while Parliament should maintain its full autonomy in carrying out its external policy agenda, joint ad hoc visits and statements by Parliament alongside Commission and Council representatives in relation to key developments in non-EU countries offer a promising area for enacting the Team Europe approach; calls, in this regard, for an interinstitutional Team Europe pilot programme to be launched in a selected number of non-EU countries; calls for this pilot programme to ensure that Parliament’s tools are fully integrated within a joined-up interinstitutional approach towards the countries concerned;

38. Denounces the decision by some countries, including some that have agreements with the EU, to ban Parliament delegations and individual MEPs from entering some or all of their territories; denounces the threats and sanctions against MEPs by non-EU countries; insists that the Council and the Member States take immediate and robust action, including sanctions if deemed necessary, when Parliament’s bodies or individual MEPs are targeted by restrictive measures from non-EU countries;

39. Highlights election observation as an area where cooperation between Parliament and the EEAS is the most structured, with both institutions conducting election observation activities that are well integrated with each other in several ways;

40. Reiterates its call for more strategic coordination between EU institutions in relation to urgent individual cases that involve HRDs, journalists, or members of particularly vulnerable groups; is convinced that parliamentary diplomacy may prove an effective and complementary mechanism for engaging with non-EU countries on such cases; calls for an interinstitutional task force on HRDs to coordinate European efforts on priority HRD cases;

41. Reiterates its request for the VP/HR, in cooperation with the Member States and Parliament, to adopt an annual list of focus countries of serious concern in relation to the plight of HRDs and democracy activists, which would, inter alia, allow for a fully coordinated Team Europe practical response on the ground; believes that Parliament could play a decisive role by using its institutional and other means in support of this targeted and joined-up approach;

42. Urges each EU delegation to publicise Parliament’s work relevant to its host country, including in the local language on its website, and to follow up with local authorities and civil society groups;

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43. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.