The European Parliament is prepared to further increase its pressure on the European Commission to use the mechanism protecting the EU budget against Rule of law failures (see EUROPE 12676/6).
Indeed, the joint draft resolution (EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, The Left) on the ‘Rule of law mechanism’, which will be voted on 25 March in plenary, states that “in case the Commission does not fulfil its obligations under this Regulation by 1 June 2021, Parliament will consider this to constitute a failure to act and subsequently shall take action under Article 265 of the Treaty against the Commission”.
According to this Article, if the EU institutions fail to act, in violation of the Treaties, the Member States and the other institutions of the Union may bring an action before the Court of Justice of the EU to have the violation established.
The text deplores the absence of any written notification to Member States since the entry into force of the Regulation on 1 January 2021, “despite the numerous concerns about breaches of the Rule of law identified in the Commission’s 2020 Rule of Law Report”. The Commission has started drafting guidelines on the application of the Regulation and is requested to adopt these guidelines by 1 June 2021.
See the draft resolution: http://bit.ly/2P6CeFW (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)