The European Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) discussed on Tuesday 7 July the draft opinion of Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (S&D, Poland) on the implementation of a European mechanism on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
The AFCO Committee has been asked to provide an opinion to the Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) on the report by Slovak MEP Michal Šimečka (Renew Europe) on this subject – a report which is expected to be presented by the end of the month and which the LIBE Committee intends to adopt in September.
Mr Cimoszewicz advocated in his draft opinion that amendments to the Treaty should be proposed at the Conference on the Future of Europe in order to abolish the unanimity rule in the Article 7 procedure. A position that is welcomed by several groups.
“The Conference on the Future of Europe is a moment we must seize to protect the values of the EU”, said Vladimír Bilčík (EPP, Slovakia), calling on MEPs to be “visionary”.
Mr Cimoszewicz also highlighted the proposal to link the rule of law mechanism to an interinstitutional agreement.
“I am a strong supporter of this agreement, which, once adopted by the European Parliament, can directly serve as a basis for interinstitutional negotiations on the legal act as such”, stressed the MEP.
Annual report. He also raised the issue of the annual monitoring cycle, stating that it should be “transparent, impartial and based on realistic measures”.
In particular, the Greens/EFA called for monitoring to be carried out by independent experts, appointed by national parliaments and the European Parliament, and argued that States should not be given the opportunity to self-assess.
For the record, a first annual report by the Commission on the rule of law is expected at the end of September (see EUROPE 12516/19).
Conditionality. Mr Cimoszewicz also stressed the importance of maintaining the conditionality between the European budget and respect for the rule of law (see EUROPE 12494/8) and of attaching a system of sanctions to this conditionality.
Although he received strong support from a majority of groups, Mr Cimoszewicz was met with the ire of the ID and ECR groups.
Condemning a ‘repugnant” attempt to replace the traditional system of dialogue with a system of sanctions, Gerolf Annemans (ID, Belgium) assured that his group would not support this procedure.
“The imposition of sanctions on Member States will only reinforce euroscepticism and people’s mistrust of the institutions”, said Angel Dzhambazki (ECR, Bulgaria).
The Vice-President of the Commission for Values and Transparency, Vera Jourova, stressed that the German Presidency of the Council should present compromise solutions on the points left open (conditionality, governance, resources, structure of the interinstitutional agreement) “over the summer”, as it has obtained a mandate to this effect. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)