Maria Arena will continue as the Chair of Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights for the coming two and a half years. Committee members re-elected her by acclamation on Wednesday.
“I am honoured and proud to be re-elected as Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights”, Ms Arena (S&D, Belgium) said after the vote.
“I will continue to fight for democracy and human rights for all and even more so for those who are most vulnerable and minorities. As we did during the first part of this mandate, I also want to focus, together with my colleagues, on the responsibilities that businesses have when it comes to human rights and the environment, the situation of freedom of expression and association around the world, and the use of new technologies as a tool for democracy, and not as surveillance against democracy and human rights”, she added.
By acclamation, MEPs also re-elected Bernard Guetta (Renew Europe, France), Hannah Neumann (The Greens/EFA Germany), Christian Sagartz (EPP, Austria) and Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, France) as the Subcommittee’s Vice-Chairs. They will form, together with Maria Arena, the Subcommittee’s bureau.
Rules for the election
According to the European Parliament’s Rules of Procedure (Rule 213), the number of vice-chairs is determined by Parliament as proposed by the Conference of Presidents. The diversity of Parliament must be reflected in the composition of each committee’s bureau. It is not possible, for example, to have an all-male or all-female bureau or for all of the vice-chairs to come from the same member state.
Coordinators are designated by political groups (Rule 214). If necessary, the committee chair can convene a meeting of the coordinators to prepare decisions to be taken by the committee, in particular decisions on procedure and on the appointment of rapporteurs.