Last update: 23/01/2023
The European Youth Event is based on the values of respect, dignity, equality, accessibility, inclusiveness, intercultural exchange, multilingualism, and sustainability. With this Code of Conduct, the European Parliament is committed to maintain a culture based on respect, dignity and equality to ensure full access and participation, reflecting the basic right of everyone to be heard, and reaffirms its zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of discrimination or threatening behaviour.
Purpose of the Code of Conduct
The aim of this Code of Conduct is to ensure that every person feels safe, included and respected during the European Youth Event 2023 (EYE2023), both onsite and online. The Code outlines a set of norms, rules and responsibilities that apply to any individual present at EYE2023.
This Code of Conduct applies to formal, informal, and one‑to‑one settings. A formal setting is any part of the working programme of the event. Informal settings include any moment surrounding the working programme, including but not limited to social events and online communication, both on and off the premises of the EYE and on the online event platform.
Participation in EYE2023 constitutes formal acceptance of and adherence to this Code of Conduct.
How to act in accordance with the Code of Conduct?
Be respectful and mindful towards other participants
- Be respectful of others, their views and opinions;
- Refrain to communicate or act in a way that promotes a particular political party or candidate, that incites violence against and/or harassment towards other people, that provides pornographic content or links to pornographic material or websites; that promotes or facilitates illegal activities; that is illegal, hateful or deliberately false or misleading;
- Demeaning, discriminatory or harassing behaviour or speech will not be tolerated at EYE2023. This includes offensive comments related, but not limited to:
- age
- gender identity
- sexual orientation
- race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
- religion, belief, faith or non-belief
- ability, disability or impairment
- physical appearance
- educational background
- socio-economic background
- political convictions
- belonging to a political party
- organisational backgrounds
- If you notice someone needs help, speak to them and ask if you can be of assistance. If you cannot help out, speak to a volunteer or a security agent.
Respect the organisational setting
- Follow the instructions and guidelines on the online platform, on signage and from EP staff, security personnel and event organisers;
- Alert the Trusted person (see below) if you see someone acting in violation of this Code of Conduct, provided you feel comfortable doing so;
- Smoking and consumption of alcohol are strictly forbidden in the non-designated areas;
- Use good judgement and avoid (even the appearance of) inappropriate behaviour.
If ever in doubt about a course of conduct, ask yourself:
- is the behaviour demeaning, discriminatory or harassing towards another participant and/or a speaker?
- is the behaviour of a participant disrespectful towards another participant and/or a speaker?
- Is it consistent with the values of the European Youth Event?
- Is it consistent with the rules of this Code of Conduct?
- Will it reflect well on me and on others?
The Trusted person
Should you experience or witness any kind of inappropriate behaviour, please contact the Trusted person available throughout the event to help seek peaceful and respectful solution for any tensions or incidents that may occur by writing to eye@ep.europa.eu
The role of the Trusted person will be to assist and guide the parties toward their own resolution. The Trusted person does not decide the outcome, but helps the parties understand and focus on the important issues needed to reach a resolution. The Trusted person will be available throughout the event and easily reachable in case participants would like to contact them, anonymously or not, with any complaint or alleged issue regarding online or offline activity. The Trusted person will act under the principle of confidentiality.
Procedures
In case of any inappropriate behaviour, defined bullying, degradation, harassment, verbal or non-verbal discriminatory behaviour, the activity organisers are required on their best judgment, in successive order and depending on severity of the action, to:
- Remind participants of their obligation to act in accordance with the present Code of Conduct;
- Engage in a one to one conversation with the offender to make sure that there is an understanding of the reason of the inappropriate action;
- Ask for an apology and/or retraction of the action;
- Suspend the activity and/or ask the offender to leave for the remainder of the activity;
- Contact the Trusted person (see above);
- In the case of violent or other, potentially illegal behaviour according to the laws of the country, contact the security agents and/or Police.
In case of incidents, all participants – alleged offenders, presumed victims and witnesses alike – agree to collaborate fully with the event organisers and security agents, and help to clarify the circumstances of the incident as follows:
- follow the instructions given by the security agents;
- duly and honestly answer to the questions;
- request the presence of the EYE Trusted person;
- present their identity card on request;
- accept to have their identity card photographed or copied for the purpose of drawing a complete incident report.
The event organisers and/or security agents will:
- record each incident in writing, including all the relevant and available information;
- gather as much information as possible : by collecting the respective statements of the alleged victim(s) (if the victim is willing to do so), the alleged offender, any witnesses as well as that of security services, other staff, and that of the Trusted person who will have handled the situation, as neutral party in the incident;
- contact immediately the Police in case of violent or other, potentially illegal behavior according to the laws of the country
Confidentiality of the procedure
The Trusted person shall not disclose the identities of the parties concerned without their prior consent. The Trusted person will respect the alleged victims choices on the follow-up of the procedure. If a legal procedure requires it, or for the safety of the individual, the personal data of all persons involved in the incidents can be shared with responsible Parliamentary services or the Police.
Sanctions
Based on the reporting made by the event organisers and/or the security services, the Directorate General for Communication can take immediate action to mitigate the risk and protect the other participants and can decide if the non-compliance with this Code of Conduct should be sanctioned.
Proportionally to the gravity of the incident, the following sanctions can be applied:
(1) removal from the EP premises for the rest of the day
(2) removal of the accreditation to the event
(3) suspension of payment of financial contribution to the participants who are part of concerned groups
In case a staff member of the European Parliament or from another EU Institutions is identified as the alleged perpetrator, the organisers have the right to communicate a report to the competent authorities (e.g. AIPN/DG PERS for the European Parliament, DG HR/IDOC for the European Commission) when appropriate.
The above named dispositions do not interfere with the harmed person’s or harmed group’s legal rights to bring legal action against the offender in application of the local legislation.
In addition to the possibility of the European Parliament to apply a sanction in case of potential or effective breach of the Code of Conduct, the European Parliament reserves the right to communicate externally on the matter subject to the respect of data protection rules.