The head of the delegation, Sophia IN'T VELD (Renew, NL) hold a press conference to conclude the travel of the LIBE delegation to Ljubljana. MEPs were on the ground to assess the situation regarding the rule of law and media freedom in the country. MEPs met NGOs, academia representatives, the government Ombudsman, journalists, state prosecutors and high-level government officials.

press conference

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

EU mechanism on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights (T)

EU - Slovenia (T)

Slovenia

Ljubljana

Press conference by the Head of the LIBE delegation to Slovenia, Ljubljana

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, OK, thank you very much, and good afternoon, everybody. I have seen some of you near our delegation over the last couple of days. I will start by by introducing the members of the delegation, Mrs. Tomc from the EPP Group, whom you probably know she's from here. Mr. Engerer from the S&amp;D group from Malta. Mrs. Strik from the Greens group from the Netherlands, mrs Kanko from the ECR Group from Belgium, Mr. Fest from the ID Group from Germany and Mr. Fisker, who's actually here on behalf of the Budget Control Committee from the Czech Republic.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, Right. There was another member who was who had to leave yesterday afternoon and that was Mr Arvanitis from the from Greece, from the left group. So now you know all the faces, and if you have specific questions you know whom to approach them. I think before I make a statement, I would like to make clear what this trip was about and what it was not about. As you probably know, it was a mission, as we call it, of the democracy rule of Law and Fundamental Rights Monitoring Group of the European Parliament. And I emphasise monitoring group. It's not a tribunal. We are not a not a court of justice. We do monitoring, which is a an ongoing exercise.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, It's not a one off. It's not one visit, and then we issue a verdict. It's part of an ongoing exercise. And I think that is it's important to to keep that in mind. I think thet when it comes, you know what the reasons are, why we decided to come here and and to start monitoring Slovenia. You also know that there have been earlier online sessions due to COVID. We were unable to travel. So no, we're very happy to be here and also enjoying a little bit beautiful Ljubljana. But you know that this is started at an earlier stage and there were concerns in particular over media freedom or media pluralism, and there have been some brief exchanges with the prime minister and the Minister of Culture, but they were very, very short.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, About the programme. We have had a very full three day programme, and let me start by saying that we we had wished to meet with the prime minister and some of the ministers, unfortunately, they were not available. I hope that sometime in the future, we will have an opportunity for an exchange because it would have been very important to hear their views. However, we've had meetings with a very wide range of actors. We did meet with the secretary of State from the cabinet of Mr Jansa and the Secretary of State for Justice from the Minister of Justice. We've met with journalist, NGOs, the Ombudsman, the Court of Auditors, the Anti-Corruption Commission. We've met with the public television. We've met with a very, very, very wide range of actors.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, This morning we were in parliament. We've met with heads of the parliamentary committees, with the president of Parliament, with the president and vice president of the National Council. So we've really tried to to get as broad a picture as possible. Of course, we'll go back to Brussels, noted European Parliament, and and start writing down our findings and eventual conclusions. So whatever I say is preliminary, however, I think, there's an echo now? I think maybe somebody can address the Echo. Maybe it's this. There are a couple of observations to be made. One observation is that the public institutions, the public bodies work well.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, That is one thing so that we have concluded, which is very which is very reassuring. We also conclude, however, that there are a couple of issues. One being one that has really struck us all is the, let me summarise it by saying, the tone of the public debate is also very striking, that members of the government are also engaging in a kind of debate, which I think is unfitting for a civilised and democratic society. That's one thing. The second thing is, you know, following on from this, I think that kind of debate leads to a climate of distrust, hostility and intimidation, and what I find very worrying is that it shows doubt and distrust about the public institutions, but also between the public institutions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, Then another element here, which is reason for concern, is that we see in a number of cases that let's say decisions to make appointments or to grant funds budgets are being delayed, held up, stalled and they have to be fought in court. I'm referring in particular to the funding of the press agency. And this is something we feel needs to be addressed urgently because I think it should not be that even when a favourable court ruling comes that it has gone under, then of course, as members of the European Parliament, we are very concerned about the delayed nomination of the delegated prosecutors to the EPPO, the European Public Prosecutor's Office, and we also took note of the delay in the appointment of prosecutors here in Slovenia itself.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, There's one third element and then I'll come back to the initial findings. We also, I mean, sometimes let's say, the hate speech and the hated tone of the debate actually ends up in downright harassment or intimidation excessive use of libel suits, criminal charges. We have to take a note with concern of the letter signed by four public bodies the the Court of auditors, the ombudsman, the Data Protection Authority and the corruption commissioner who are pointing at the risk of pressure and possible threats to their independence. There's, I think, a very, very worrying signal.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, So, I think, the first finding I mentioned, namely, that the institutions work well, that is a very important conclusion. But I think there is also sufficient reason for concern. If you see how pressure on public bodies is growing, how pressure on the media are growing, on journalists are growing, and all in all, you may end up with a kind of climate where in the media and the democratic institutions do not function properly anymore. Not because they are not, they don't have the right legal base or something like that, but simply because in a climate where the distrust to and throw has risen to levels where public bodies do not work together anymore in the interest of the citizens, that is, I think, very, very worrying.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, What also struck us, but maybe the others will want to say something about that, is the polarisation. It's very much as if the population is divided into camps, whereas I think there's only one Slovenia, there's one Slovenia and there's only one Slovenia people and you may have different views, you might like each other, you may not like each other, but that's normal. But this degree of division in a population whereby it seems that it becomes a dialogue of the deaf is worrying. And I do think, I do believe that the tone of the debate is not harmless and it's not innocent. And we have seen in other countries how it can lead to an erosion of trust in the democratic institutions and even an attack on the democratic institutions in the end. We're not there. I make it very clear, we're not there.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, One last remark, maybe on specific concerns. I think the fact that the ruling by decree, we know that there is debate here and court cases about whether there's sufficient legal basis for the decrease. That is not the issue, I think, but there is a question whether at this point in the pandemic, it is necessary to continue to govern by decree.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, OK, I think I've mentioned some of our our main findings and main concerns. So the institutions are functioning well. We are concerned about the tone of the debate, harassment and intimidation and the, you know, using the squeezing budgets and capacity in order to weaken certain institutions. That is very worrying in particular as they are compound. We do feel that the the SEA should be funded immediately. We also strongly urge those responsible to nominate the delegated prosecutors prosecutors to EPPO. We also strongly urge to no longer delay the appointments of the prosecutors here in Slovenia, the national prosecutors.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN 'T VELD (Renew, NL), Head of LIBE delegation, And I think finally, it was also pointed out to us that there is an urgent need for legislative reforms, for example, the media law. I understand that this has been a problem, you know, not just for the last year and a half, but for years, if not decades. That I would also like to underline that the whole idea that problems have only started a year and a half ago. I think there have been problems before, and I'm expressing myself carefully here because there were lots of references to the past and all the debates that we had. But I do think that everybody or many people mentioned that there is a clear intensification of of issues. I think that is what I would like to say by way of introductory remarks. I'm open to two questions, and if you have any specific questions to any of my colleagues, please indicate to.

Question concerning the situation of media and the reason why the minister of the culture was not allowed to record the meeting with the delegation

Question concerning the reason why only journalist from a specific political side and NGOs were interviewed?

Question concerning the outcomes of the meeting and about some tweets of the Prime Minister Jansa

Question concerning if the EU institutions should take further steps towards Slovenia

Question concerning the pushbacks on the southern border with Croatia