Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Removed14. Urges the Commission and the Member States to end the systematic obstruction of non-governmental search and rescue (SAR) efforts; recalls the urgent need to set up an EU search and rescue fund and calls for the EU institutions to allocate appropriate funding for this purpose in the next MFF;

Added17. Calls on the Member States to ensure transparency in public spending and political financing, and to protect whistle-blowers who expose corruption in public institutions and the private sector;

Removed15. Urges Member States to follow the recommendations from the report of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights; strongly condemns the recurrent anti-refugee and anti-migrant rhetoric;

Added18. Calls on the Commission to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of the Whistleblowers Directive and to take the necessary steps to ensure its full and correct transposition;

Removed16. Calls on the Member States to implement the Migration and Asylum Pact in full; expresses concern regarding the lack of preparedness by some Member States to meet the implementation deadline, in particular with regard to provisions relating to fundamental rights;

Added19. Expresses serious concerns regarding the deterioration in media freedom and the safety of journalists and media actors in several Member States, in particular those ranked lowest in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, and the increasing pressure and attacks on, and political interference in, editorial independence and journalistic integrity;

Added20. Recalls that media freedom and pluralism, including high-quality, sustainably and transparently financed and independent news media, both traditional and digital, independent and investigative journalists, fact-checkers and researchers, and strong independent public service media are a cornerstone of a democratic society, a safeguard against the abuse of power and an antidote to disinformation;

Added21. Condemns the oppressive strategies employed by some Member States’ governments, such as the use of SLAPPs and smear campaigns, the growing influence of government-aligned oligarchs, the increasing concentration of media ownership that can have a significant impact on media pluralism and editorial independence across the EU, and state control over public media, civil society and academic institutions, all of which are contributing to the growing deterioration of media and academic freedom;

Added22. Deplores the growing practice by high-level officials in some Member States of limiting communication with key media outlets; emphasises that such actions curtail media freedom and transparency and can contribute to the spread of disinformation in the public space; underlines that public officials have a special responsibility in their communication with the public; stresses that the spreading of disinformation or public attacks on journalists by public officials is an increasing problem that fosters a permissive environment for propaganda, polarisation, hate speech and even hate crimes; urges all public figures to recognise and uphold their responsibility in public communication, ensuring that their discourse remains respectful, factual and professional;

Added23. Deplores the systemic failures in investigating and prosecuting crimes against journalists in several Member States; underscores the urgent need for stronger safeguards and robust legal frameworks to protect journalists; underlines that a failure to investigate and prosecute crimes exposed by journalists places them at a heightened risk of threats and violence; urges national authorities to end impunity through thorough and transparent investigations and prosecutions; pays tribute to Ján Kuciak, Daphne Caruana Galizia and Giorgos Karaivaz, and acknowledges their essential work as investigative journalists; calls on the competent authorities to ensure that justice is finally served;

Added24. Strongly condemns all forms of violence, threats, intimidation and surveillance against journalists, as well as the harassment and criminalisation of journalists for their work; calls for decriminalising defamation; highlights the fact that women journalists are particularly targeted and that this is a matter of concern; stresses that such a hostile environment for journalistic work might lead to self-censorship or deter individuals from choosing journalistic careers;

Added25. Calls on the Commission, the Member States and candidate and potential candidate countries to ensure the immediate and effective safety and protection of journalists and media professionals, including those fighting corruption at the highest levels of government;

Added26. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote free, independent and pluralistic media; stresses the need to ensure robust legal protections for public service media, guaranteeing their editorial independence and stable funding and shielding them from political influence and interference, in order to enable them to serve the public interest effectively and impartially; calls on the Commission to closely monitor such developments across the EU and to address the ongoing challenges;

Added27. Urges the Commission to ensure the full and correct implementation of the European Media Freedom Act; further urges the Commission and the Member States to guarantee the swift and proper implementation of the Anti-SLAPP Directive and to take effective measures to put an end to all SLAPP cases across the EU;

Added28. Calls on the Member States to follow the recommendation from the Council of Europe Safety of Journalists Platform to strengthen the protections for journalists in exile, including safeguards against the misuse of Interpol red notices;

Added29. Recalls that 16 EU Member States have recently committed to strengthening support for the integrity of information and independent media; acknowledges that several Member States have adopted dedicated action plans and taken steps to set up dedicated support structures promoting the safety of journalists;

AddedIntersection of fundamental rights, democracy and technology

Added30. Highlights the growing trend of election manipulation in the EU by both domestic and foreign actors; calls on the Commission to carry out regular specific analyses of the tools available to, and used by, Member States to combat disinformation and foreign interference linked to electoral processes, recognising that such threats undermine fundamental rights, including the right to receive and impart information, democratic participation, and free and fair elections;

Added31. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that all measures taken to protect the EU against foreign interference and information manipulation include strong and resolute safeguards for fundamental rights, including freedom of expression; takes note of the Commission’s newly proposed ‘Democracy Shield’ mechanism and expresses its intention to engage constructively in its further development;

Added32. Calls on the Commission to assess whether EU restrictive measures imposed on several academics, scientists and analysts comply with the proportionality and necessity requirements under EU law and with Article 11 of the Charter, and whether they are designed to minimise their impact on economic, social, and cultural rights; recalls that the right to be heard must be guaranteed;

Added33. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to guarantee the effective implementation and enforcement of the DSA, the Artificial Intelligence Act and the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation, including by ensuring adequate human and technical resources to safeguard the integrity of future elections in the EU;

Added34. Recognises the important role of digital technologies in fostering access to information and democratic participation; stresses that the business model of social media platforms based on microtargeting can stimulate addictive behaviour and lead to the amplification of divisive content, with serious repercussions for fundamental rights, such as the rights of the child, the right to the protection of personal data, equality and non-discrimination; underlines that social media platforms are often used as a vehicle for foreign interference and hybrid attacks due to their amplifying effects on social cohesion and democratic processes; underlines the need to address these challenges as part of the EU’s broader resilience ecosystem;

Added35. Calls on the Commission to reinforce the risk assessment and mitigation obligations for very large online platforms and very large online search engines, and to ensure effective follow-up; urges the Commission to remain firm in the face of attempts to undermine the DSA and to pursue ongoing investigations into large online platforms;

Added36. Highlights the challenges posed by generative AI chatbots, including the potential for these systems to cause cognitive harm through their interactions; considers that new technologies, including AI systems, must be guided by the principles of transparency, explainability, fairness and accountability and by appropriate safeguards in algorithmic systems, such as carrying out independent impact assessments to prevent them from exacerbating discrimination and existing inequalities; shares the opinion of the UN Secretary-General that algorithms should not exclusively determine the information people access, and that technology companies should ensure that their algorithms and content recommendation systems are designed and used in ways that do not undermine fundamental rights and democratic values;

Added37. Recalls that, according to Article 27 of the DSA, providers of online platforms must set out in their terms and conditions the main parameters used in their recommendation systems, any options available for users to modify or influence those parameters and an explanation of why certain content is suggested to the user; urges online intermediaries to end practices that deliberately exploit polarisation for profit;

Added38. Highlights the negative effects that online platforms can have on fundamental rights and the mental health of children; stresses the need to protect children online, and calls on the Commission to closely monitor whether existing legal frameworks can effectively address these concerns, with a specific focus on ensuring a strong children’s rights and fundamental rights perspective in such assessments; underlines that the upcoming Digital Fairness Act must effectively protect children online and safeguard their rights; further calls on the Commission to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for children, and to better protect them from harmful and illegal content and from advertisements based on profiling;

Added39. Welcomes the announcement of the first EU-wide inquiry into the effects of social media on well-being, and calls on the Commission to speed up the process;

Added40. Calls for stronger investment in media and digital literacy as the most effective safeguard against manipulation; urges the Member States to include media and digital literacy, civic education, European history, respect for fundamental rights, critical thinking and the promotion of public participation in school and university curricula, recognising them as critical elements for meaningful participation in democratic life and the effective exercise of fundamental rights, including freedom of expression and the right to receive information; highlights the need to work in parallel on raising awareness about how to tackle disinformation and promoting digital literacy; calls for a concerted EU media and digital literacy strategy with projects that create tangible results with significant scale across the EU;

Added41. Deplores the growing practice of government surveillance of independent media outlets and journalists by intelligence services; strongly condemns attempts by certain governments to portray independent media and journalists as drivers of radicalisation or to restrict their work by labelling them as threats to society or national security;

Added42. Reiterates that surveillance must be conducted in accordance with the law, serve a legitimate aim and be necessary and proportionate given the threat it poses to fundamental rights and democracy; regrets that the legal framework in some Member States does not provide precise, effective and comprehensive safeguards on the authorisation and execution of surveillance measures and on the potential redress mechanisms against such measures; underlines that all surveillance measures must be subject to an appropriate judicial review and effective oversight; is concerned about new cases of unjustified invocation of ‘national security’ to justify the deployment and use of spyware and to ensure absolute secrecy and lack of accountability; welcomes the Commission’s statement, in line with the CJEU’s jurisprudence, that a mere reference to national security cannot be interpreted as being an unlimited exemption from EU law and should require a clear justification; calls on the Commission to follow up on that statement in cases where there are indications of abuse; recalls that in a democratic and transparent society that abides by the rule of law, surveillance in the name of national security should be the exception rather than the rule;

Added43. Reiterates its call on the Member States to follow all the recommendations of PEGA and the Venice Commission, which provide important guidance on ensuring compliance with fundamental rights, the rule of law and democratic oversight; stresses the need for full accountability and transparency in all cases of intrusive surveillance; urges the Commission to respond to the growing threats posed by spyware technologies; calls for effective judicial oversight to ensure that surveillance is never used against journalists, activists or political opponents;

Added44. Urges the EU’s accession to the ECHR to be finalised; recalls that the CJEU, in its case Opinion 2/13, identified a number of legal obstacles to accession, and underlines the importance of addressing these obstacles in order to enable the EU’s timely and successful accession; stresses that this step is essential to align the EU’s legal framework with the highest standards of human rights protection;

AddedFundamental rights at borders and migration policy

Added45. Recalls that the new legislative framework under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum establishes revised rules for asylum procedures, border management and solidarity; underlines that its effective implementation requires full respect for fundamental rights; highlights that respect for fundamental rights must continue to be closely monitored;

Added46. Calls on the EU and the Member States, in particular their competent authorities, to comply with international human rights obligations and commitments in their migration policies, promote prompt investigations, closely monitor the impact of these policies on fundamental rights, both within existing legal frameworks and in the development of future legislation, and refrain from adopting migration policies that exacerbate inequality and exclusion; encourages the EU and the Member States to take into account the situation and specific needs of vulnerable groups; calls for the establishment of a mechanism to monitor compliance with these obligations;

Added47. Calls on the Member States to implement the Migration and Asylum Pact in full and in a timely manner; highlights the need to meet the implementation deadline; notes with concern the lack of preparedness by some Member States to meet the implementation deadline, including with regard to provisions related to fundamental rights, and encourages continued support and cooperation to ensure its full implementation; highlights that international law recognises that seeking asylum is a lawful act and that, accordingly, an asylum seeker cannot be arbitrarily detained solely on the grounds of being an asylum seeker; recalls that the detention of asylum seekers must be a measure of last resort if less coercive alternative measures cannot be applied effectively; stresses that any detention of asylum seekers must be exceptional, necessary and proportionate, and may only be ordered on the basis of an individual assessment for the specific reasons provided under EU law;

Added48. Strongly condemns fundamental rights violations at borders, including practices involving stopping asylum seekers and forcibly returning them to the country they entered from without carrying out an individual assessment, ill-treatment and the use of violence by national authorities such as law enforcement and border guards; notes that such practices are often unreported and not investigated; notes, furthermore, that several Member States continue to face significant operational pressure at their external borders; underlines that these challenges require a coordinated European response, including streamlined and effective procedures, in full accordance with the applicable EU and international legal framework;

Added49. Reiterates the obligation under the International Law of the Sea to assist persons in distress, and urgently calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish permanent and coordinated search and rescue operations with swift disembarkations; further calls on the Member States to take every possible action to save the lives of people at risk at sea; calls, furthermore, for ensuring that search and rescue (SAR) operations can operate in accordance with EU and international law and that these operations are coordinated, where possible, between relevant actors, including Member State authorities, relevant EU agencies and relevant non-governmental actors;

Added50. Urges the Commission and the Member States to end the systematic obstruction of non-governmental SAR efforts; recalls the urgent need to set up an EU search and rescue fund, and calls for the EU institutions to allocate appropriate funding for this purpose in the next MFF;

Added51. Recalls that Article 46 of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Regulation can be activated in cases of potential violations of fundamental rights; calls on the agency to proactively make full use of all the tools at its disposal, in particular the possibility of activating Article 46 in cases of potential fundamental rights violations;52. Urges the Member States to take due account of the recommendations made by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights in his report entitled ‘Protecting the Defenders: Ending repression of human rights defenders assisting refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in Europe’; stresses the importance of maintaining public discourse grounded in respect for human dignity, while underlining the importance of a fact-based and responsible public debate on migration and asylum; strongly condemns recurrent anti-refugee and anti-migrant rhetoric;

Gender-based violence, women’s rights and the rights of LGBTIQ+ people

Change 5

Removed17. Urges the Commission and the Member States to take the necessary measures to fight anti-gender and anti-rights movements;

Added53. Strongly condemns the backsliding on women’s and LGBTIQ+ rights in several Member States; calls on the Commission and the Member States to protect and promote gender equality and fundamental rights, including by addressing disinformation and organised campaigns that seek to limit these rights, and to take the necessary measures to promote gender representation;

Removed18. Welcomes the EU Roadmap for Women’s Rights and the Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society annexed thereto; regrets, however, the lack of strong financial commitments;

Added54. Urges the Commission and the Member States to take the necessary measures to fight anti-gender and anti-rights movements, including anti-LGBTIQ+ movements, and to conduct in-depth research, monitoring and analysis of the impact of these movements to gain a clearer understanding of their operations, coordination and financing strategies; stresses that such understanding is crucial to safeguard an inclusive and tolerant Europe grounded in the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU;

Removed19. Urges the EU and the Member States to combat all forms of gender-based violence and to address their root causes, including gender-based cyberviolence; reiterates its call on the Commission to recognise gender-based violence as a new EU crime under Article 83(1) TFEU;

Added55. Urges the Commission to ensure that in the new MFF, no EU funding will be made available to anti-gender and anti-rights groups that aim to roll back progress in women’s rights and the rights of LGBTIQ+ people, nor to any group or project that does not respect EU values and the fundamental rights outlined in the Charter; further urges the Commission to closely monitor the implementation in Member States of funds under shared management aimed at promoting gender equality and supporting civil society, including women non-governmental organisations, in order to ensure that calls for proposals to obtain such funds are not being deliberately paused or withheld;

Removed20. Reiterates its call for the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Charter; stresses that there is still no EU definition of rape based on the lack of consent;

Added56. Expresses serious concerns about the intensifying attacks on the LGBTIQ+ community and their fundamental rights in some Member States, including through the obstruction of legal gender recognition, the erasure of the existence of intersex people, violations of reproductive rights and restrictions on access to essential reproductive healthcare and age-appropriate, comprehensive sexuality education for children; emphasises that these attacks violate the right to non-discrimination, the right to equality before the law and the right to equal protection before the law without discrimination; calls for the EU and the Member States to combat all forms of violence and discrimination against LGBTIQ+ people and to address disparities in protection resulting from the inconsistent implementation of protection measures across Member States; welcomes the new LGBTIQ+ equality strategy 2026-2030, and calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure its swift implementation; calls on the Member States to renew or adopt new national LGBTIQ+ action plans or strategies to complement EU initiatives with effective national measures;

Removed21. Calls on Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia to ratify the Istanbul Convention;

Added57. Underlines that the absence of legal gender recognition procedures constitutes a violation of fundamental rights; condemns conversion practices, such as practices aimed at changing, repressing or suppressing a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression, as violations of fundamental rights, and urges the Commission to tackle them through concrete actions; further urges, in this regard, the Commission to present a proposal for a legal act establishing an EU ban on conversion practices in all Member States as a follow-up action to the ‘Ban on conversion practices in the European Union’ European Citizens’ Initiative;

Added58. Is deeply concerned about the discriminatory measures introduced in some Member States under the pretext of fighting ‘LGBTIQ+ propaganda’, which are contributing to an alarming increase in hate crimes and hate speech targeting LGBTIQ+ individuals; highlights the negative impact of such measures on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly; emphasises that these actions encourage discrimination and contravene EU law; stresses the importance of the right to self-determination of LGBTIQ+ persons and the relevant case-law in this regard;

Added59. Calls on all Member States to protect LGBTIQ+ rights in compliance with EU law, the Charter, and case-law of the CJEU and the ECtHR; urges the Commission to address the persistent failure to implement CJEU judgments relating to the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ people, using all the mechanisms at its disposal;

Added60. Recalls that legal barriers to recognising same-sex partnerships, parenthood and marriages across borders persist in several Member States; warns that such practices hinder the free movement of LGBTIQ+ families within the EU, violate the principle of non-discrimination before the law and highlight the lack of uniform protection for LGBTIQ+ individuals across Member States; calls on the Member States who have not yet done so to introduce legal recognition of same-sex partnerships; calls on the Commission to recast Directive 2004/38/EC in order to include explicit cross-border recognition of private and family life rights; stresses that all children are equal before the law and that Member States must act in the best interests of the child;

Added61. Recalls Parliament’s mandate on the Parenthood Regulation, which supports the recognition of parenthood across the EU irrespective of the type of family; calls on the Member States to swiftly adopt the Parenthood Regulation to provide legal certainty for parents and children across the EU and to ensure that parenthood established in one EU Member State is automatically recognised across the EU; urges the Commission to ensure full respect for the free movement of persons, the rights of the child, the right of residence and family reunification within the EU, enabling all citizens to enjoy equal rights and exercise them in full;

Added62. Welcomes the EU Roadmap for Women’s Rights and the Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society annexed thereto; regrets, however, the lack of strong financial commitments; is concerned about the insufficient level of ambition to protect and promote the Union of Equality;

Added63. Underlines that gender-based violence, both online and offline, is a major and pervasive offence, as well as a violation of fundamental rights and the principle of equality before the law; calls on the Commission and the Member States to take action against all forms of gender-based violence, both online and offline;

Added64. Is concerned that forms and patterns of gender-based cyberviolence continue to evolve; underlines that the non-consensual sharing of intimate material and hate speech are some of the most widespread forms of cyberviolence; expresses great concern over the growth of the so-called ‘manosphere’ in the online environment; highlights the need to develop measures to address and counter the rise of misogynistic and far-right values among boys and young men concerning gender equality and women’s rights; stresses the need for a deeper understanding of the incel phenomenon and ideology, and emphasises the importance of prevention through more active policies to counter such phenomena and their narratives;

Added65. Urges the Commission and the Member States to address the growing potential harm and chilling effect that new technologies, including artificial intelligence, can have on victims, and to put in place preventive and supportive measures; further urges the Commission to take action against the pervasive online violence targeting women, which has become an increasing barrier to women’s participation in public life and to equal representation; urges, in this regard, the Commission and the Member States to fully and properly implement relevant legislation, in particular the Directive on combatting violence against women and domestic violence and the DSA;

Added66. Strongly deplores and condemns the spread of hate crime and hate speech, including on social media; underlines that they pose a serious threat to democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights; highlights and strongly condemns the risks posed to democratic debate and fundamental rights when freedom of expression and freedom of information are exploited by anti-democratic movements and politicians to legitimise hate speech, disinformation and the intimidation of journalists and minorities; underlines that freedom of expression must be exercised within the law and in line with Article 11 of the Charter, and cannot be used as a pretext for undermining democracy and fundamental rights;