Travel ban to the US for Breton and other European politicians, the European Parliament opens the debate

Brussels – The ban on entry into the United States of America issued in December against prominent European figures, such as former Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and other digital security activists, is coming before the European Parliament. On Wednesday (25 February), the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) will hold a debate on the suspension of US visas, imposed last December, to Breton, but the discussion—according to the European Parliament’s press release—will broaden to focus, above all, on the impact that so-called “travel bans” could have “on the EU’s digital sovereignty, on the application of European digital laws and on the regulatory autonomy” of the Old Continent. 

The voices that will be heard are those of the recipients of the measures issued by the State Department on 23 December: in addition to Thierry Breton, who as Commissioner has been at the forefront of greater regulation of the digital sector, speakers will include Josephine Ballon and Anna Lena von Hodenberg (Managing Directors of Hate Aid), Imran Ahmed (CEO of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate), and Clare Melford (CEO of the Global Disinformation Index). According to the European Parliament, all these individuals are united by their work “in favour of a safer digital environment and compliance with European digital laws and regulations by online platforms”. With a resolution passed in January, the European Parliament had already condemned the measures taken against Breton and the other four European citizens, calling on the Commission and Member States to “respond firmly to these attacks” and recalling that “the application of EU digital laws serves to ensure compliance with the law and the protection of fundamental rights, not to punish political opinions.” 

The travel ban, moreover, appears to have become the White House’s most frequently used tool for countering dissent abroad. The most recent case concerns Belgium: Conner Rousseau, leader of the Flemish socialist party Vooruit, has been banned from travelling to and staying in the US by order of the US ambassador to Brussels, Bill White. The decision, announced on Saturday 21 February, came a few days after the Belgian politician shared a video on Instagram in which, starting with the violence committed by ICE in the US, he compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. In announcing the visa ban on Rousseau, White called the video “totally absurd and unacceptable” and also called for an “immediate condemnation of the statements” by Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot. 

Brussels, however, does not seem willing to give up its right to express its opinion on what is happening overseas. Contrary to White’s request, Prévot condemned “the idea that a parliamentarian and party leader can be banned from a country for exercising his right to speak,” stressing that his department will contact Washington for clarification. The words of the head of Brussels diplomacy were followed by those of another member of the Belgian executive, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke. The “dean” of the Flemish socialists accused White of having “crossed numerous red lines: in a democracy, people are free to express their political opinions, and an ambassador cannot decide who can or cannot enter his country on the basis of what he thinks.” 

After all, Vandenbroucke himself is one of White’s main targets. A few days ago, in a post on X, White accused him of failing to take action in response to an investigation launched against a group of Jewish families in Antwerp involved in circumcisions. He described him as “very rude” and then linked his name to a bribery case dating back to the 1990s, known as the “Augusta scandal“.