On 7th October 2019, Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President-designate for Values and Transparency, is heard by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in association with the Committe on Legal Affairs (JURI) of the European Parliament in Brussels to test her general competences, European commitment and specific expertise related to her portfolio. On this occasion, Věra JOUROVÁ has the opportunity to make an opening statement. The following transcription is the result of an automatic process. Check Against delivery.

Brussels

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

JOUROVÁ, Věra (EC)

Committee on Legal Affairs

Committee on Constitutional Affairs

hearing

hearing of Commissioners

2019 Commissioners' hearings (T)

hearing of Vĕra JOUROVÁ 2019 (T)

Hearing of Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: Opening statement by Věra JOUROVÁ

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: Honorable chairs, honourable members, I am grateful to have the opportunity to be here again for a hearing and to ask for your trust. I have been a frequent visitor to this house in the last five years and I am glad to see so many familiar faces. I am looking forward to working with all of you in the coming years. My role in the next Commission, if confirmed by you, will be to deal with critical and sensitive issues. This portfolio is about what I would call Europe's soul. This portfolio is about European people. As the president elect stated this portfolio is a response to the challenges Europe is facing, be they internal or external.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: My goal will be to make Europe more democratic and transparent, to make Europe more resilient against new threats including digital ones and to make Europe more capable of defending the values we cherish including the rule of law and media freedom. As Timothy Snyder wrote: "The Constitution is worth saving. The rule of law is worth saving. Democracy is worth saving. But these things can and will be lost if everyone wait around for someone else".

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: And this portfolio is a testimony that the new Commission will not wait and I know I will be able to count on the European Parliament as a trusted ally. I would also like to make Europe stronger and more united by building bridges between different parts of our union. This year in the Czech Republic as in many countries of Central and Eastern Europe we will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the end of totalitarianism. Today's European Union is built on the ruins of the Berlin Wall and the spirit of the Solidarity movement in Poland, on the Baltic wave and the Velvet Revolution in former Czechoslovakia.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: And I have a vivid recollection of these days. I remember it very well. We wanted change. We wanted to join the European Community, not in search of material goods but in search of its freedoms. European values are our common foundation. They bind us together. From north to south from east to west, they overcome our differences of language, of culture, of traditions. This is why upholding our values, our fundamental rights, our rule of law must be our key objective and it should be a driver of European unity rather than a source of division. This is the spirit I would like to uphold in the next Commission. Now let me outline my three priorities.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: Firstly we need to improve the way European democracy works including the way we appoint and select EU leaders. This year so increased turnout in the European elections. This is an opportunity and also our responsibility. We must not disappoint the hopes of our citizens. As the president elect has stated one lesson is that we need to improve the lead candidate system including by addressing the issue of transnationals. I will use my role as chair of the commissioners group on a new push for the European democracy to ensure that the Commission makes a strong contribution to the work on the conference on the future of Europe on these issues and acts as an honest broker between the institutions.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: To be credible and fully accountable in the eyes of our citizens I believe, we in the EU institutions, must set an example. This means ensuring that our legislative process is well understood and free from any hidden interest. This is why we should work towards a common Transparency Register and an independent ethics body common to all EU institutions as set out in the political guidelines. This would be a powerful symbol of our determination to build together on the European political culture by respecting the highest moral standards.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: My second pillar of work will be based on values including the rule of law and media freedoms. Rule of law is the basis of European solidarity and mutual trust. It is essential for the functioning of EU law and the Single Market. And one thing is certain: we cannot take the rule of law for granted. This is why we need to build our rule of law culture based on mutual respect. We should privilege dialogue and avoid crisis situations from happening. But equally we have to address problems where they exist. I will be principled and act with determination if needed. Using all the available tools.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: As you all know Frans Timmermans has worked tirelessly on this topic and I see my role in continuing this work and the next Commission. If confirmed I will join forces with the justice commissioner to further strengthen the tool box to deliver on the rule of law, notably as the annual rule of law review cycle. This also echoes a call from this house for a mechanism that looks at the situation in all the member states. I count on the European parliament to join these forces and join these efforts to ensure that the rule of law is upheld, this for determination and fairness.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: Honourable members, digitalization has brought many benefits and can strengthen democracy but it also has exposed exposed it to new threats and amplified old ones including external intervention and spread of disinformation. And this is not a trivial matter, i is a real threat. The recent Oxford study on the global disinformation order found evidence of organized social media manipulation campaigns in 70 countries up from 48 countries in 2018. Around the world governmental and not state actors increasingly use social media to undermine trust in democracy. They increasingly use Political bots to amplify hate speech, harvest data illegally and deploy armies of drones. All of this contributes to increased polarization of our societies. And this might in turn even lead to violence as physical attacks on politicians, journalists or members of minorities take place also in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: We cannot be naive. Enemies of democracy weaponized the digital sphere already. We must increase our ability to resist and to react. Vaclav Havel already captured well the democratic challenges when he wrote in the free internet era: "The natural disadvantage of democracy is that it is extremely tyring to those who mean it honestly, while it allows almost everything to those who do not take it seriously". And if I may add something, today I would also see to those who want to abuse it. Indeed defending democracy and freedoms is not an easy exercise and our work is not finished. I am determined to consolidate our response on this threat while fully respecting the freedom of speech. We are not starting from scratch on this and I pay tribute to all colleagues in this commission who worked on this with me in 2018 in particular a high representative vice president Mogherini, vice president Ansip and Commissioner Gabriel. We have done relevance first steps but they only remain first steps.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: If confirmed I will design the European democracy action plan which President elect von der Leyen has entrusted with me as a vehicle for a new push in addressing the issue effectively so that our democracy is more resilient. This requires putting in place a smart regulatory framework as well as coherent and interconnected structures. I will work on solutions to bring more transparency on paid political advertising and more clarity on financing European political parties. I will also assess carefully whether platforms have fulfilled the obligations they accepted under the code of practice on this information. But we need more if we really want to address disinformation and manipulation. We need capacities and research to detect the threats as they emerge including at member states level.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: We need to empower the society to better understand the scale of the danger and help people protect themselves by raising awareness and better education especially in digital literacy. So to effectively counter disinformation and to build resilience, we must have a comprehensive approach involving governments, political parties, platforms, journalists, researchers, educators and civil society. And in developing this important policy, I will want to stay in close dialogue with you and will very much appreciate your input. Another key area of my focus will be the media freedom and pluralism. Here I think we definitely must do more. We should continue the use of our funding for independent projects monitoring media pluralism, map violations to media freedom and support journalists whose safety is under threat. I will use all the political and legal tools I have to follow up on ideas like the report of the High Level Group on media freedom and pluralism.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: The third pillar of my tasks are fundamental rights. Fundamental rights are key to what makes Europe the place we love to live in: inclusion for all, equality for all, security for all, human centric digital transformation. I am very conscious of the need to defend people and that fundamental rights every hour, every day and every time they are under threat. We will not leave anyone behind. I will pursue the work I started under the current commission to promote the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We will soon celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Charter. I will use the moment to review our strategy. My position as Vice President, if confirmed, brings a horizontal responsibility and I want to promote the fundamental rights in everything we do. I wanted to see fundamental rights in the design of the commission's policymaking, be it on artificial intelligence, be it on digital transform transformation or equality policies.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: I want to underline one thing fundamental rights are not an obstacle to innovation. On the contrary they help us to ensure that our solutions put people first and will be more sustainable as a result. I see this for instance as an important aspect of what we will do next on our strategy on artificial intelligence. This approach, I am convinced, will put us in the strong position as global standard setters just as we have done with the data protection. Finally I want to ensure that the EU accedes to the European Convention of Human Rights. This will be a strong sign of our commitment to fundamental rights.

SOUNDBITE (English) Věra JOUROV&Aacute;, Vice-President-designate, Values and Transparency: Honourable members, I believe Europe can only be strong and project its values internationally if we are united. We need a better and more self-confident Europe to stand up for our citizens and defend them from global threats. To achieve this we need to work better together. All of these areas will rely heavily on a special relationship between the Commission and the European Parliament. We will only achieve results with strong inter institutional cooperation. I will always be ready to engage with the Parliament and your committees in particular at all stages of our policy making process and political dialogue in the spirit of loyalty, trust and full transparency. Thank you for your attention.