Dr. Gianni Buquicchio:

I thank the Deputy for his question.

First, the emergency situation means taking urgent actions. Italy was the first in Europe to call for a national lockdown in March followed by France some weeks later. All routes were considered good steps by the society - good steps because the epidemic was contained. Now Italy after the end of the lockdown sees new cases of the virus every day but the number of cases is much lower than those of other European countries. This proves that the measures which were taken and are still being taken are worthwhile. That said, the response of the Italian Government was appreciated by the society up to now but, of course, there could be some disappointment with some special measures. As I said already, the full action of the Government must be evaluated by the Parliament after the end of the crisis to learn some lessons for the future. This would be very important.

As I must leave the committee, I wish to say that according to our experience and observation of the situation in Europe, I can say that globally all the measures which have been taken have respected the rule of law and human rights. Among the 47 countries that are parties to the European Convention on Human Rights, only ten made a derogation under Article 15 of the convention concerning the protection of human rights. I said "globally" because I must note that in two central European countries the governments and parliaments tried to pass some draft laws which were not connected with the pandemic by using the measures taken during the pandemic. One concerned abortion and the other one in another country concerned some limitations to freedom of expression, which can be limited under the European Convention on Human Rights. However, in the case of this kind of pandemic, freedom of expression, except for fake news and other manipulations, should be preserved because the public needs to be well informed about all these problems.

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee. I hope this exchange was useful.