European Union

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Written by Marc Jütten.

Respect for fundamental freedoms and human rights is a core value of the European Union (EU), and one that is promoted through its policies. The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize honours the work of people who stand up for these freedoms and rights. This year’s Sakharov Prize is to be awarded to María Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela’s democratic forces, and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia. They represent all Venezuelans both inside and outside the country who are fighting to restore freedom and democracy. The Sakharov Prize award ceremony will take place during the European Parliament’s December plenary session.

Significance of the Sakharov Prize

The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is the highest tribute paid by the EU to human rights work. Every year since 1988, Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize to individuals or organisations for their outstanding achievements in defending human rights and fundamental freedoms. Past prize winners have included Nelson Mandela, Alexei Navalny and Malala Yousafzai. The prize is named after Andrei Sakharov, the eminent Soviet Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, human rights activist and 1975 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Award procedure and the 2024 Sakharov Prize finalists and laureates

A political group, or at least 40 Members of the Parliament, can nominate a candidate for the Sakharov Prize each year. From the list of nominees, three finalists are shortlisted in a joint vote by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. The three finalists for the 2024 Sakharov Prize were (in alphabetical order): Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, academic and anti-corruption activist in Azerbaijan; María Corina Machado, as leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia, representing all Venezuelans inside and outside the country fighting to restore freedom and democracy; and Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, from Israel and Palestine respectively.

On 24 October 2024, Parliament’s Conference of Presidents decided to honour María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia with the 2024 Sakharov Prize. When announcing the decision, Parliament’s President, Roberta Metsola, commended Machado and Urrutia for continuing to fight for a fair, free and peaceful transition of power in Venezuela and for upholding justice, democracy and the rule of law fearlessly. The President stressed that the European Parliament stands with the people of Venezuela and with the laureates in their struggle for the democratic future of their country.

The fight to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela

In 2018, Nicolás Maduro was re-elected in a presidential election that was contested by the international community (including the EU) as it failed to meet international standards and the outcome lacked legitimacy and credibility. In October 2023, the Maduro regime and the Unitary Platform, the alliance of Venezuelan opposition parties, met in Barbados and agreed to hold free and fair elections in 2024. María Corina Machado, who served as an elected member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014, stood out as one of the strongest and most critical voices of the regime. In the primary organised by the Unitary Platform on 22 October 2023, she was elected with 92.35 % of the vote to be the opposition’s candidate in the presidential election. Since then, Machado has been the image and symbol of the united Venezuelan opposition. However, breaching the Barbados agreement, the regime disqualified Machado from standing for election on arbitrary and politically motivated grounds. As a result, on 22 March 2024, Machado announced that Corina Yoris would be the presidential candidate. Ultimately, as the Maduro regime also prevented Yoris from registering, Edmundo González Urrutia, a former diplomat, became the democratic opposition’s presidential candidate.

Nicolás Maduro’s government did not allow an EU observation mission (EOM) into the country to oversee the 2024 presidential elections. However, reports from international election observation missions clearly state that the presidential election on 28 July did not meet international standards of electoral integrity at any of its stages, and cannot be considered democratic. It came as no surprise that the National Electoral Council of Venezuela (CNE) and the country’s highest court – both stacked with government loyalists – announced the victory of Maduro without publishing evidence. Maduro’s claimed victory has not been recognised by the Organization of American States, the United States, the EU or by key states in Latin America, such as Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. However, Russia and China (together with Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Honduras) were among the first to congratulate Maduro. The fact is that more than 80 per cent of voting tallies published by the opposition credibly demonstrate that Edmundo González Urrutia won the election with 67.08 % of the votes cast; this outcome was confirmed by the interim report of the United Nations (UN) Panel of Experts on the election. Following the election, María Corina Machado was forced to go into hiding for fear of reprisals from the regime. Edmundo González Urrutia had to flee the country and seek asylum in Spain on 8 September after an arrest warrant was issued against him.

Human rights situation in Venezuela

In October 2024, the UN’s independent international fact-finding mission on Venezuela released a report documenting a deeply worrying rise in human rights violations. The investigation documents multiple and increasing violations and crimes committed by the Venezuelan government, security forces and pro-government armed civilian groups before, during and after the July presidential vote. These violations include arbitrary detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and sexual violence – all of which are taking place as part of a coordinated plan to silence critics and perceived opponents. Among the victims are children, as well as people with disabilities.

Following the elections, the Maduro regime further increased its repression and intimidation to hold onto power by force and violence. At least 25 people were killed, hundreds were injured, and over 2 400 Venezuelans were arrested for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression. According to the UN Refugee Agency, 7.7 million Venezuelans have become refugees or displaced migrants since 2014. The vast majority of them – more than 6.5 million – are hosted in Latin American and Caribbean countries. This is one of the world’s biggest international displacement crises.

EU position on Venezuela

On 13 November 2017, the EU imposed targeted sanctions against Venezuela.They include an embargo on arms and on equipment for internal repression, a travel ban for the regime’s leaders, and an asset freeze on individuals and entities responsible for human rights violations and for undermining democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela. The sanctions were last extended until 10 January 2025. In 2019, the EU established an International Contact Group on Venezuela with the objective of working to facilitate conditions for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Venezuelan crisis. The EU deployed an EU electoral observation mission to observe Venezuela’s regional and local elections inNovember 2021.

Following the 2024 presidential election, EU leaders called on the Venezuelan authorities to respect the democratic will of the Venezuelan people, end the violence, repression and harassment against the opposition and civil society, and release all political prisoners.

European Parliament position

Parliament has adopted several resolutions on the situation in Venezuela in recent years. On 19 September 2024, Parliament recognised Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected President of Venezuela and María Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces in Venezuela.

This is not the first time Parliament has awarded its Sakharov Prize to the democratic opposition in Venezuela. In 2017, the prize was given to the political opponents of the Venezuelan government, including the National Assembly and all political prisoners, to reward their ‘continuing bravery in the pursuit of freedom and prosperity in Venezuela’.

Read this ‘at a glance’ note on ‘Laureates of the 2024 Sakharov Prize: María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia, fighting for democracy in Venezuela‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

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The European Defence Agency (EDA) has today published its annual Defence Data report for 2023, detailing defence spending from all 27 EU Member States. At a record €279 billion [1], 2023 European defence spending increased by 10% on the previous year, marking the ninth year of consecutive growth. Twenty-two of the Member States increased defence expenditure, with 11 increasing spending by over 10%.

2024 Forecast

Separately, the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) report, which provides an overview and analysis of the EU defence landscape for Member States, forecasts the following spending for 2024:

• EU defence spending is projected to reach €326 billion in 2024

• Defence investments are expected to hit a record 31% of total defence expenditure, with research and technology (R&T) spending increasing to €5 billion in 2024
• Procurement spending is seeing sustained growth and could increase beyond €90 billion in 2024

2023 European Defence spending - Key findings

The return of full-scale war to Europe and efforts by Member States to strengthen their military capabilities led to a noticeable jump in defence spending in 2023.      

• A record €72 billion was allocated to defence investments accounting for 26% of total defence expenditure, the largest share recorded by EDA since data collection began in 2005.  This allocation was overwhelmingly directed towards the procurement of new equipment, which increased by 19% on the previous year.

• In 2023, total funding for collaborative research and technology (R&T) projects initiated under the European Defence Fund (EDF), in calls 2021 and 2022, reached approximately €100 million for projects, marking the first year that the EDF had such a significant financial impact on the European defence landscape.

Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency Jiří Šedivý said: “The European Union is making strides in defence investments, spurred by the urgency of the threats we face. Still, a large proportion is spent on off-the-shelf equipment from outside the EU, highlighting the need to fortify the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. Buying together saves money, while developing assets together makes us more independent.

I welcome rising research spending. But Europe lags behind the United States and China in defence research and technology investment. To secure Europe’s future, we must prioritise innovation and unity."

Commitment to investment 

The allocation of €72 billion of total defence expenditure to defence investment by Member States marks robust growth of 17%.

The agreed benchmark of 20% total expenditure in this area is surpassed for the fifth year running, reaching 26% across the EU. Twenty Member States reached this collectively agreed benchmark, with Luxembourg (59%), Estonia (49%), Finland (45%) and Poland (45%) having the highest allocation of their overall defence expenditure to investment.

Research spending slips 

Despite increased spending dedicated to defence research and technology, Member States are still failing to reach the 2% benchmark of defence expenditure dedicated to R&T activities with two countries accounting for more than 80% of R&T spending at EU level. EU collaborative endeavours such as EDA’s ad hoc frameworks and funding via the EDF can collectively bring the EU closer to achieving the benchmark for defence spending allocated to R&T activities.

European Collaborative Defence R&T by funding source 

Figure 12, page 17 of the report

  BACKGROUND

EDA collects defence data on an annual basis, and has done so since 2006, in line with the Agency’s Ministerial Steering Board Decision of November 2005. The Ministries of Defence of the Agency’s 27 Member States provide the data. EDA acts as its custodian and publishes the aggregated figures in its “Defence data” booklets and on its website. Datasets of MS are available since 2006 on the Defence Data Portal on EDA’s website.

 

[1] Figures are expressed in 2023 constant prices.

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