Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) discussed the annual rule of law dialogues held at the EU Council on Wednesday 6 November. This exercise will be the subject of specific conclusions that the Finnish Presidency intends to adopt at the next General Affairs Council on Tuesday 19 November.
The aim is to review the functioning of these annual dialogues and redefine the role of the European Commission and the reports it produces. As revealed by the Politico website, Hungary and Poland are opposed to the content of these conclusions, a source confirmed on Wednesday. The two countries, which are subject to an ‘Article 7’ procedure on respect for the rule of law, even refuse to draw conclusions.
Warsaw and Budapest want to minimise the role of the Commission and its evaluations and want their own evaluations to be included in the overall evaluation.
In July, the Commission proposed to publish an annual report on the situation of the rule of law in all Member States (see EUROPE 12298/2). And the EU Council has since considered how to include these reports by Member State in its annual dialogue. Member States also want to have a peer review mechanism, which must be consistent with the Commission’s action.
While the draft conclusions are expected to evolve before 19 November, the majority of Member States want written conclusions, which preserve the role of the Commission, to be adopted, added the same source.
The Finnish Presidency of the Council of the EU, on the other hand, has not yet definitively decided on the idea of a second hearing with Hungary in December, as some national delegations – although not many – had requested in September during the first such exercise imposed on Viktor Orbán’s government (see EUROPE 12328/1).
For its part, the European Economic and Social Committee published the report of missions carried out in five Member States – Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania – to measure compliance with and knowledge of the principles of the rule of law (see EUROPE 12360/6).
See the EESC report: https://bit.ly/33xYLxP (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)