The Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council intends to continue the work of its predecessors on the Rule of law, including the procedures known as Article 7 involving Poland and Hungary, and will organise a high-level conference on this subject in Coimbra in May.
However, it is not expected to organise new hearings of the two countries before the General Affairs Council on 11 May, according to a provisional work programme, and both hearings have yet to be confirmed. The Presidency could in fact rely on a simple state of play report.
No hearings of these two countries were held in 2020, as the German Presidency considered the exercise impossible during the pandemic and Croatia had not sought to organise such an exercise after a very active Finnish Presidency on this issue.
Portugal will in the meantime take forward the Commission’s annual report on the Rule of law published on 30 September (see EUROPE 12571/5) and cover five more countries. By 17 November, the judicial, anti-corruption and press structures had been examined in the first five countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia and Denmark (see EUROPE 12603/7). This new discussion could take place at the General Affairs Council on 23 March.
Charter of Fundamental Rights
Furthermore, the new Presidency is committing itself to work on the revision of the strategy for the implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (see EUROPE 12614/27) and to ensure the follow-up of the new European Action Plan against Racism (see EUROPE 12563/2). In the area of fundamental rights, it also promises to “take a cross-cutting approach” to gender equality.
Finally, Lisbon intends to adopt the draft Council Recommendation on “equality, inclusion and participation” of Romani communities (see EUROPE 12622/26). This text could be submitted for approval at the next Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO), scheduled for 15 and 16 March.
Link to priorities: https://bit.ly/2KU8uKL (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Agathe Cherki)