Members of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) took note on Monday 13 July of the report by Slovak MEP Michal Šimečka (Renew Europe) on the future European Union Mechanism on the Rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights.
They supported some of its requests, such as extending the scope of the Mechanism to cover all the values of Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).
They also called for better coherence between all existing tools, such as Article 7 of the TEU, the future annual report of the Commission, and the reports on 'Cooperation and Verification Mechanism for Bulgaria and Romania'. The European Parliament must be fully involved in this work via an interinstitutional agreement, they said.
Mr Šimečka insisted that the crisis in European values “observed in recent years” had been “further aggravated” by the Covid-19 health crisis. Without naming any countries, he spoke of “illiberal, oligarchic, even authoritarian tendencies in the EU”. This new crisis, which undermines “the legal order” as well as the “internal market”, puts the “survival of the EU” at stake, he added.
The rapporteur also felt that “the EU is ill-equipped to deal with the setbacks” which have been observed. “This has been seen with the deadlocked Article 7 procedures”, he noted.
As for the introduction of a principle of conditionality between the payment of aid from the EU budget and respect for the Rule of law, “it is unclear whether the principle of reverse qualified majority voting” will be adopted, said Mr Šimečka (see EUROPE 12525/1, 12525/5).
He said the EU has “many tools, but everything is fragmented”. He therefore proposes to merge or even replace these tools in a single mechanism. Slovakia also wants this evaluation of the Member States to be accompanied by deadlines and targets to be met with strict monitoring.
The idea appealed to the members of the LIBE Committee. Some, such as Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), nevertheless argued that all the tools, such as the 'Article 7' procedures currently open against Poland and Hungary, should continue to exist and that the European Parliament should continue to exert pressure on the Council of the EU.
Vladimír Bilčík (EPP, Slovakia), for his part, wants to be sure that the mechanism in the making is objective and “politically unbiased”.
Katarina Barley (S&D, Germany) also supported extending the scope of the mechanism. Article 2 of the TEU states that the EU “is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities”. “These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail”, it adds.
During the debate, the representative of the European Commission reiterated that its annual report on the rule of law, due in September, would be “comprehensive” and would also address media pluralism. At this stage, the report is likely to focus on three main areas: freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary and corruption.
A new strategy on fundamental rights is also being prepared, he said.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/3e3CLiE (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)