"Mr. Borrell, please adapt the visa handbook!" - My plenary address on the annual human rights report

In many countries, human rights defenders face enormous dangers: They risk their freedom, their security and often their lives. They are unjustly accused and imprisoned. But if they want to enter the EU, their special situation is not taken into account - sometimes even interpreted in a negative way.

Once a few weeks ago, I was assured by the EU Commission that human rights defenders would not be disadvantaged when applying for visas and that they were "not aware of any systematic problems". This is obviously wrong. One example is the case of the Turkish LGBTI activist Özgür Gür. Last year he applied in vain for a visa for the Schengen area in order to attend a conference in the European Parliament. The application was not approved - despite the personal commitment of the Member of Parliament who had invited him. It is high time to change this state of affairs! That is why I confronted the EU foreign representative Joseph Borrell yesterday with Özgür's case and the structural problems in the visa code and demanded that the visa handbook take better account of the situation of human rights defenders in the future.