Skriftlige stemmeforklaringer Patrick BREYER

The Pirate delegation in the European Parliament decided to abstain on the Report on Mental Health on the grounds that paragraph 54 calls on the Member States to detect and prevent the use of addictive licit and illicit substances. This wording is calling for stricter prohibition in place of sound harm reduction policies, which present the preferred solution.
Additionally, the report fails to consider the latest science on certain psychoactive substances which can be addictive (ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin), but in therapeutical settings they are shown to help treat patients with depression, PTSD and addiction. The Pirates would like to see a reclassification of these substances to allow for their medical use, instead of reinforcing outdated prohibition principles.

. – The Pirate Party fully supports the ambition to protect consumers from dark patterns and other misleading practices used in video games to influence consumer behaviour. We share the concerns when it comes to the collection of huge amounts of data through video games for advertisement purposes. We nonetheless acknowledge the huge benefits provided by video games to players as well as to the creative economy through innovation and growth.
However, we shall not promote the introduction of error-prone in-game automated content filters in order to remove content for allegedly being ‘harmful’. On a similar basis, backing ‘age assurance’ systems would in practice require identification and result in dangerous leaks of identity data. Finally, the report raises concerns on children producing video games. We should cautiously regulate here as the game-makers’ community is also based on collaboration.

. – We Pirates welcome the EP mandate to deploy alternative fuels infrastructures. The mandate provides thorough safeguards for consumer protection, such as mandatory card payments possibilities or price transparency displayed in an user-friendly manner. On a similar basis, enhanced targets for the roll-out of the infrastructure together with the combination of indicators will enable a rapid and fair distribution of the deployment.
Nonetheless, we want to make clear our position on the camera installation facilitation in Amendment 148. We understand that cameras to be installed in unattended charging stations shall be triggered only if the planned emergency button is triggered. Under no circumstances may these cameras be used for mass surveillance purposes.

. – The Accessible EU Centre that will be launched by the European Commission in the coming months will have an impact on the lives of millions of persons with disabilities in Europe. The report sends a strong political message that the Commission has to come up with an ambitious centre, with adequate funding and more cooperation with accessibility professionals, organisations representing people with disabilities as well as to support the implementation, monitoring and enforcement of accessibility-related legislation.
Nevertheless, we want to make clear our position on the gender balance issue with regards to the establishment of a forum. Point 7 of the report stipulates that gender balance within that forum should be ensured. We Pirates insist that the most competent experts are selected. Only in case of similar qualification should criteria such as the gender decide. We understand the report along these lines and thus voted in favour of the report.

. – The Pirates in the European Parliament sincerely support the joint motion for resolution on the state of play of EU-Moldova cooperation. Furthermore, we highly praise the solidarity that Moldavians show to the Ukrainian refugees by opening their homes, although it has a significant impact on such a small nation.
We support the Commission to continue delivering humanitarian support through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and other financial aid and assistance. Furthermore, we support Moldovans toward energy independence, connectivity, diversification and efficiency as Russia uses an energy source to wield political pressure over Moldova. Moreover, we support the deepening of the EU-Moldova relations. However, we would like to distance ourselves from the language in paragraph 27, commending the authorities for the temporary ban on several disinformation websites.
The Pirates themselves highly recognise the danger of disinformation and work on the matter of prevention. However, bans on websites are an attractive but ineffective short-sighted solution that does not answer the deep-rooted problems of disinformation and creates dangerous precedents for the future. Unfortunately, we could not vote paragraph 27 separately. But, sometimes, we must weigh the overall positives of a resolution. Therefore, after careful consideration, the Pirate delegation voted in favour of the resolution.

. – The report concludes an in-depth work on Artificial Intelligence in order to fully grasp the drawbacks and opportunities that this new technology represent. We welcome calls to build a legislation on AI at workplace, the promotion of digital literacy, mentions of safeguards for the processing of health data in terms of legal redress, consent, anonymisation and discrimination... We also do believe that AI will prove to be crucial to accompany the green transition. We therefore commend the mention of education, up-skilling and reskilling while ensuring gender diversity.
As Pirates, we recall that the use of AI to stem the tide of fake news and hate speech has to be taken cautiously. As stated in the report, current AI performances in terms of context-specific content are poor. Therefore, implementing such technology to content filters leads to an over-removal phenomenon, which is detrimental to freedom of speech. We must bar their use. AI can be useful to detect and flag patterns, while still being subject to human decisions when freedom of speech is at stake.
We regret that our support to initiatives banning facial recognition for law enforcement purposes, or to mitigate statements on intellectual property law strengthening, did not go through.

In solidarity with the people of Ukraine, Pirates support decisive sanctions to help end the illegal war by Russia on Ukraine, such as sanctions to cripple the Russian elite and block their access to the European markets.
At the same time, we need to be extra vigilant to prevent emergencies from being misused by our governments to impose unjustified restrictions on fundamental rights.
Unfortunately the resolution at hand calls to restrict Russian users from accessing international IT services. This is counter-productive because Russians rely on international communications services and online platforms i.e. to organise protests and access independent news and information. It is reckless to force them to use services controlled by Putin’s regime instead.
The resolution also calls to implement an EU ban on Russian state-owned propaganda channels, which according to the Commission includes blocking European citizens from accessing their websites and blocking search engines from indexing them. This method of Internet censorship is applied by the Chinese and Russian regimes on their populations, but unworthy of a democratic society. The real antidote to propaganda is not clumsy censorship attempts but promoting media plurality and media literacy.
For these reasons I could not support this resolution and abstained.

. – Pirates supported the adoption of the Data Governance Act as we commend the final goal to facilitate data flows around Europe. It entails rules regarding publicly owned data, data intermediation and ‘data altruism’. It provides more legal certainty and proportionate measures for the reuse of data. Pirates consider the successfully added safeguards regarding data protection and data security to be adequate.
Nevertheless, we want to make clear our position on the gender balance issue with regards to the establishment of an expert group. Article 29 of the regulation stipulates that the Commission shall aim to achieve gender balance within that expert group. We, Pirates, insist that the most competent experts are selected. Only in case of similar qualification should criteria such as the gender decide. We understand Article 29 along these lines and thus voted in favour of the regulation.

. – The Pirates supported the adoption of the regulation on computerised system for communication in cross-border civil and criminal proceedings. The e-CODEX system forms the basis for cooperation between competent judicial authorities, legal practitioners and citizens throughout Europe. It consists of a set of software components that link national IT systems into a secure decentralised network for document and information transfer. Provisions on data protection and ensuring adequate data security measures were added during the parliamentary procedure.
However, we wish to make clear our perspective on the issue of gender balance covered in a non-binding recital. The regulation suggests that EU-LISA, the agency responsible for the operational management of the e-CODEX system, should have a Programme Management Board established, taking into account gender balance. It is important that the way to improve gender balance is non-discriminatory and based on competences, such as by giving a preference to the candidate of the less represented sex in case of two equally qualified candidates. For the Pirates, gender quotas would not be acceptable.

. – European Pirates appreciate and fully support the determination expressed in this resolution for improving participation and removing discrimination in democratic processes in the EU. The resolution rightly highlights the need to address the voting opportunities of disadvantaged groups of citizens and enable persons with disabilities to exercise their full rights as EU citizens. It raises a number of favourable proposals in terms of rainbow families, children in cross-border custody, etc.
Even though Pirates support the resolution’s digital proposals such as digitalisation of public services, or the establishment of an online one-stop-shop centralising all EU participatory instruments, we cannot agree with the call on Member States to implement electronic voting.
Safe and secure electronic voting, is, at this time, technologically impossible. Electronic voting allows for large-scale manipulation of democratic processes, which can undermine public trust in democracy. The text evokes safeguards, which however cannot be realistically met. This is why we voted against the report.