Breaking News! White smoke for Mairead McGuinness.
Human Rights Without Frontiers hails this appointment
Press Release of Human Rights Without Frontiers (26 March 2026)
Human Rights Without Frontiers hails the appointment of a new EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) outside the EU on 25 March and welcomes the choice of Mairead McGuinness, a highly qualified person for this mission. The function falls under the remit of Magnus Brunner, the current Commissioner for Internal Affairs.
McGuinness is an Irish politician who served as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability and Financial Services from 2020 to 2024.
She previously served as Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2020, sitting with the European People’s Party (EPP), and as First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2020.
In this capacity, she had responsibility for the implementation of Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty, which governs dialogue between EU institutions and churches, religious associations and non-confessional organizations.
McGuinness also highlighted the European Parliament’s role in shaping EU Guidelines on Freedom of Religion or Belief, including consultation during their drafting. She supported greater awareness and implementation of these guidelines globally. This document was adopted on 24 June 2013.
End of June 2023, Human Rights Without Frontiers celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the Guidelines with an international conference organized at the European Parliament under the auspices of MEP Peter van Dalen and MEP Carlo Fidanza, co-chairs of the Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Since the end of the full mandate of the very first EU Special Envoy, Jan Figel, on 30 November 2019, the European Commission has only appointed two Special Envoys for short periods: Christos Stylianides (Cyprus), who left after 4 months, and Baron Frans van Daele (Belgium), a retired diplomat, for 2 years.
It cannot be kept silent that during the 10 years and a few months of existence of the post of EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief in the world, the mandate has only been carried out for 5 years, despite all the pressing calls of the MEPs and civil society. This shows a persistent lack of political will to defend freedom of religion or belief outside the EU.
The Council of Europe (CoE) has very recently appointed a Greek Special Representative against all forms of religious intolerance and, in the meantime, a number of EU Member States have also put in place their own Special Representatives on FoRB.
