Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice President-designate for Values and Transparency, is heard by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), in association with the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI ) of the European Parliament in Brussels to test her general competences, European commitment and specific expertise related to her portfolio. Statements by Roberta METSOLA (EPP, MT), Anna Julia DONÁTH (RE, HU), Antonio Maria RINALDI (ID, IT), Geert BOURGEOIS (ECR, BE) and Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice President-designate for Values and Transparency.

Brussels

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

Committee on Legal Affairs

Committee on Constitutional Affairs

hearing of Commissioners

BOURGEOIS, Geert (ECR, BE)

DONÁTH, Anna Júlia (Renew, HU)

RINALDI, Antonio Maria (ID, IT)

2019 Commissioners' hearings (T)

hearing of Vĕra JOUROVÁ 2019 (T)

Hearing of Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice President-designate, Values and Transparency: extracts from the hearing (1/2)

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA (EPP, MT), In the last years we have seen Daphne Anne Caruana Galizia and J&aacute;n Kuciak assasinated. Concretely what can you do to make sure journalists are protected not only from murder but from constant lawsuits? Is it time for an EU wide anti-SLAPP law?

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency, I met the family of Daphne in Malta. I met her mother, her father and I met her son, and I gave a promise to the mother that I will watch very closely how the investigation of the murder will be going on because the family, the mother, is waiting for justice.

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency, On SLAPP laws suing journalists from defamation, this is a shameful story. I will be mapping all the possible situations of the abuse of litigations against the journalists. I will look into the possibility of coming with some proposals in the international private law. And we will be considering some aid, some legal aid, some funding for journalists who suffer from the abuse of law.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anna Julia DON&#193;TH (RE, HU), What action will you take to ensure that the Polish and Hungarian governments respect the same rules as everyone else and that the rights of Hungarian and Polish citizens are protected?

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency, We will cover the constitutional balance, the balance of powers as the principle which is under the roof of the rule of law, very clearly placed. The second will be judicial system and independence. The third will be corruption and the fourth will be media freedom and pluralism. 

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio Maria RINALDI (ID, IT), What can you do to ensure that all citizens enjoy their Freedom of Expression?

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency, I have good news, free speech will not be undermined. 

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency, We want more transparency. We are not going to dictate what the people should read or what the people should write. We want the people, the citizens to know what is the source of the information, whether it is the political campaign, who is behind the campaign, who is paying. We want to achieve more transparency on this. And at the same time we want the social platforms to be more responsible and work against the artificial intelligence production and the bots and the fake accounts which are the distributors of disinformation. 

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Geert BOURGEOIS (ECR, BE), What is your view on the current state of the European arrest warrants?

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency, I think that Aranyosi case and others show that the European Court of Justice has a very important say and is a big push for the Member States which have a problem. And you touched upon the basic thing that we need to have the same principle things protected in the same way such as rule of law and fundamental rights because otherwise, the European judicial cooperation will not work and the European Court of Justice is such a successful instrument in judicial cooperation and with these gaps, we have a big problem. 

SOUNDBITE (English), V&#277;ra JOUROV&#193;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency, On practical note, in relation to the level of standards in prisons, I offered the Member States the advice and the information on how to possibly use EU money to upgrade the level of the standard of prisoners and it didn't work so well. So this is ongoing business. 