Brussels, 05/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 February, the European Parliament's Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group organised a seminar in Brussels on democratic governance, the rule of law and fundamental rights in the EU. The group launched a European democratic governance pact, which should become for democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights what the stability and growth pact is to the eurozone, the ALDE group stated in a press release. Analagous to the eurozone, the democratic governance pact has a semester mechanism for annual monitoring of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
“Europe is quick to call for fundamental rights to be upheld around the world, but all too often it is European member states themselves who have failed to deliver on the commitments they have made to democratic governance and the rule of law”, said ALDE group leader, Guy Verhofstadt. “Regrettably, the EU has only a few weak instruments for making sure its members remain committed to democratic governance, the rule of law and fundamental rights”, he said.
“It's time for firm measures to ensure EU members abide by the rules”, said Sophie in 't Veld (ALDE, Netherlands). The ALDE group is thus launching its “own EU scoreboard on democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights based on publicly available data, reports and research. The method is not scientific, but we want to visualise the state of democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights”, she added. Like the European semester, “we use colour coding: green for good, yellow for risk, red for problem”, In 't Veld stated.
The European Commission launched a similar mechanism in 2013 and evaluated the EU member states' justice systems through scoreboards, as part of the European semester. The Commission is also equipped with a new mechanism which should enable it to take action earlier with a member state infringing fundamental rights. The Council has decided to hold an annual debate on fundamental rights within the member states, but the objective will not be to stigmatise one country in particular, the member states assured, although Hungary is often found under the spotlight. (SP)