Finland's Minister of Justice, Anna-Maja Henriksson, appeared before the European Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on Tuesday, 3 September, to present the main priorities of Finland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union, including the rule of law, trust and transparency.
"What we want to do is reinforce the EU existing rule of law toolbox", she told MEPs.
On the initiative of Finland, EU Justice Ministers agreed to discuss the rule of law more regularly (see EUROPE 12300/1) during their informal meeting in Helsinki in July.
On Wednesday 4 September, Member States' ambassadors to the EU will prepare the public hearing on the situation in Hungary, which is expected to take place at the General Affairs Council on 16 September.
The Minister considered that the new annual monitoring mechanism proposed by the European Commission in all Member States (see EUROPE 12298/2) would make it possible to maintain dialogue within the Council of the EU.
"Prevention is better than cure. Sanctions will then prove useless", she replied to MEP Gilles Lebreton (ID, France), who was concerned about the EU's drift towards a punitive approach.
Another priority: transparency (see EUROPE 12319/5). Asked by Tiemo Wölken (S&D, Germany) and Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA, Finland) about the EU Council documents that will be made public, she said that the Finnish Presidency wanted to increase the number of public debates, increase transparency on legislation and even draft legislation, and increase access to information - all in order to "fight against disinformation".
As for the legislative dossiers tabled by the EU Council, the Finnish Presidency also aims to adopt a general approach, before the end of its term of office, on the proposal for a regulation on digitising cooperation between the courts of the Member States in the taking of evidence in civil and commercial matters, as well as on the proposal for a regulation on the service of judicial documents by electronic means (see EUROPE 12270/1).
CBCR. It also wants to move forward on the proposal for country by country reporting (CBCR), which would require companies to publish certain accounting data, such as their turnover, profits and taxes paid (see EUROPE 11530/1).
"We will try to find ways to take the proposal forward", Ms Henriksson assured MEPs, acknowledging nevertheless that the legal basis remained a problem for the EU Council (see EUROPE 12179/21).
AI. Finally, when asked about the future of artificial intelligence by MEP Marion Walsmann (EPP, Germany), the Minister called for "responsible" use and a "flexible" legislative framework, but one that guarantees consumers real data protection. In any case, she said, it was necessary to deepen the analysis of legal issues. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)