On Tuesday 15 November, the ministers responsible for European Affairs of the member states of the EU discussed the effectiveness of the mechanism set in place at the Council, which takes the form of an annual dialogue, to assess whether the rule of law is being respected by the EU28. The door is now open to changes aiming to reinforce this mechanism and make it more consistent in the future.
The ministers concluded that their annual dialogue on the observation of the principles of the rule of law should be subjected to a new evaluation by the end of 2019. This evaluation could also be the opportunity to examine whether the Council is prepared to transform the rule of law dialogue into an annual peer review exercise, the Slovak Presidency said upstream of the discussion.
According to a Council source, several member states, such as Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, on Tuesday expressed a wish to transform this mechanism into a regular evaluation of the rule of law situation in all member states. The frequency of this evaluation was not, however, clarified. Countries such as France are even calling for this evaluation to take place once per semester. Other countries agreed to move the mechanism forwards, but stressed that it should not deviate from the original principles. These include Poland and Hungary in particular.
By no means a binding mechanism aiming to point the finger at the shortcomings of any particular member state, the Council mechanism, which was finalised in 2014, is along the lines of an annual dialogue on various issues which can shed light on problems relating to the rule of law. The first was held under the Luxembourg Presidency in November 2015, and the second in May 2016 under the Dutch Presidency.
In 2015, the ministers discussed the integration of migrants and also equally stressed the efforts needed to integrate them in all areas of life in the country and the obligation of these migrants to respect the traditions of their host countries.
However, in November 2016, the ministers are mainly expected to evaluate the effectiveness of their initial discussions and are certainly not expected to discuss contentious issues, as they did during the first two debates. In particular, these contentious issues include the situation in Poland, which is of concern to the European Commission and the Council of Europe, and which led the latter to activate its own 'rule of law' mechanism earlier this year.
This annual dialogue is a discussion forum for the member states, but they do not criticise each other, the Council source stressed. Basically, the ministers will prepare conclusions on Tuesday on the annual dialogue, to be adopted at the end of the year. To this end, they have discussed the relevance of holding frequent debates and focusing on results, and the relevance of changing the form of this dialogue. This, the Council's public note explains, means that it may be sensible to decide on a theme in July 2017 on the basis of a report by the Commission or the European Fundamental Rights Agency.
The note concludes by stating that as regards the form of the dialogue, there is a convergence of opinions as to the fact that the general debate should take the form of an interactive dialogue, allowing for a genuine exchange of views between the ministers, and that it should be accompanied by thematic discussions based around particular questions and on the specific issues the member states have faced. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)