Malta’s Glenn Micallef, European commissioner-designate for youth and sport, faced questions on transgender participation in women’s sports and other delicate issues at a European Parliament hearing on Monday (4 November).
35-year-old Micallef is the youngest candidate, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has picked him for the new ‘Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport’ portfolio. But to get the job, he needs the approval of the parliament’s culture committee.
Micallef’s hearing in Brussels on Monday was marked by some of the most sensitive cultural questions of the day – particularly male participation in women’s sports and children’s mental health – as well as more technical questions about copyright.
When asked by right-wing lawmakers for his stance on whether male athletes should be allowed to participate in women’s sports, Micallef argued that such matters should be left to sporting organisations.
Nevertheless, some lawmakers applauded when he stated: “Sport is for everyone, no matter what your background is, what your gender is, or your identity. Because that is the Union I believe in, a union of equality.”
Micallef shied from defining the word “woman” when asked to do so by Croatia’s Stephen Bartulica, a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group.
Leading members of the committee’s competing political groups are expected to give their opinion later this evening, on whether he should be confirmed as a commissioner or whether to ask him back for another hearing.
Parliamentary sources ahead of the hearing indicated to Euractiv that Micallef’s confirmation seemed likely.
Children’s mental health
Micallef argued that “excessive screen time in our society is causing harm, physical harm, psychological harm, as well as societal damage.” He returned to the point several times when asked questions about improving mental health among children and young people.
“This is something that I will work on as a matter of priority, specifically looking at the impact [on] kids online,” he said, arguing that promoting sport and culture would give children “a healthier, viable alternative.”
He was asked about his plan to tackle online bullying and young people’s mental health.
“We need a strategy that really considers the fact that the more people, the more time people are spending online, the greater the risk and the exposure to cyberbullying,” Micallef said before outlining a four-pillar strategy to combat online harassment, which includes a common European definition and improved reporting of cyberbullying.
“But we must also promote other policies such as sports to give young people and children avenues to substitute screen time with healthier options,” he added.
Another delicate question came from right-wing lawmaker Malika Sorel, an independent French lawmaker affiliated with the Patriots for Europe group, who asked whether Micallef would condemn a statement that seemed to imply that a child is capable of consenting to sexual activity. Sorel attributed the statement to EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.
Micallef did not explicitly condemn the statement but said, “We have a moral and legal obligation to protect our children.”
Fair pay for European artists
Micallef also highlighted the financial plight of European artists, and some lawmakers asked him about the difficulty of obtaining remuneration for uses of their work on platforms and outside the EU.
“There are 7.7 million people working in the [creative] sector,” Micallef said. “46% of them report that they face poor working conditions, and 68% of them have to work two jobs to make ends meet.”
Catherine Griset of France’s nationalist Rassemblement National – part of the Patriots for Europe group – asked Micallef about an EU court decision that allows musicians anywhere in the world to claim royalty payments when their work is played publicly in the EU, but does not allow EU musicians to acquire similar payments from outside the union.
Micallef said he supports “all the tools and all the means at our disposal when it comes to copyrights and initiatives that protect our cultural sector.”
Similarly, German Green lawmaker Erik Marquardt asked how Micallef would address the challenges artists face in receiving royalty payments from online platforms.
“We need robust frameworks that support our artists, robust frameworks that ensure that they are fairly compensated,” Micallef answered. He argued that existing legislation – such as the Artificial Intelligence Act and the Digital Services Act, which regulates online platforms – already “provide a good basis when it comes to implementation.”
He said an assessment of how existing laws are enforced would help determine what else needs to be done.
[Edited by Rajnish Singh]
