The term “pity”, used by French MEP Stephane Séjourné (Renew Europe), probably best sums up the debate on the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council in the European Parliament, in the presence of Prime Minister Janez Janša, on Tuesday 6 July.
While MEPs supported the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency—recovery and relaunch, strategic autonomy, health union, digital and ecological transition, conference on the future of the Europe, strengthening the rule of law, Western Balkans, etc.—they also stressed their concerns about the state of the rule of law in the country (see EUROPE 12753/3), making it the main point of the 2.5-hour discussion.
“It is a pity, because I distinguish between very constructive priorities and the political situation of a country that claims to be more and more openly illiberal”, Mr Séjourné explained. According to him, if the European Parliament supports the Presidency on the substance, it will remain vigilant with regard to European values.
Even Manfred Weber (Germany), chairman of the EPP group to which Mr Janša belongs, called on Slovenia to appoint Slovenian prosecutors to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) “without delay”.
“We don't want more reports [on the rule of law] from the Commission, but for it to act and say whether or not there is a problem in Europe”, he also stressed.
While two S&D MEPs came under fire from the Slovenian Prime Minister for posing in a photo with judges at the meeting between the government and the Commission on 1 July (see EUROPE 12754/1), Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, Spain) called for tolerance. “This does not bode well. Respect is necessary”, she stressed. She also called on Slovenia to respect the truth by protecting the media.
For Ska Keller (Greens/EFA, Germany), “a campaign to denigrate civil society and the media is not the kind of act one expects from a European government. Democracy in an illiberal version is a danger”, she warned.
Dutch MEP Malik Azmani, for Renew Europe, and German MEP Martin Schirdewan, for The Left, were the most vocal. Mr Azmani asked Mr Janša if he wanted “to be part of a sinister club that does not value media freedom, judicial independence, and respect for LGBTI rights”.
“The rule of law is particularly important to us. Stop harassing journalists and judges and appointing your political friends in the police. Appoint prosecutors for the EPPO”, he listed, warning that Parliament would ask the EU Council not to approve EU funds until this was done.
For his part, Mr Schirdewan recalled that a free media and a free judiciary were “indispensable” in a democracy. “Trump is not a model of democracy, he should be a warning to us. We should not follow such an example”, he added, while Mr Janša offered lengthy support to the former US president.
MEPs in Slovenia in the autumn
The Chair of Parliament’s Monitoring Group on Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights, Sophie in ‘t Veld (Renew Europe, the Netherlands), announced that the group will visit Slovenia in the autumn at the invitation of the government.
In front of MEPs and the press, Mr Janša again explained that his country was working on the appointment of judges for the EPPO, hoping that the process would be concluded in the autumn. He also called on countries that are not part of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to take part. “I am sorry that the whole of Europe is focused on two Deputy Prosecutors. No one asks why some Member States do not participate in the Prosecutor’s Office and still participate in EU funds”, he added.
The Prime Minister also underlined his disagreement with some of the criticisms of media freedom in his country, recalling that he was the last journalist to have been in prison because of what he had written. “There is no repression of the media and journalists”, he added. He concluded that “without the rule of law, there is no European Union, that is quite obvious”.
However, this discourse clashes with the voices of civil society representatives, some of whom were heard by the Parliament in March (see EUROPE 12672/6).
Two Slovenian activists, Jasa Jenull and Tea Jarc, were in Strasbourg on Tuesday. Both are involved in the organisation of the recent bicycle demonstrations in Ljubljana, which brought together thousands of people demanding the resignation of the government.
They stood at the foot of the Parliament an hour before Mr Janša’s speech and, together with MEPs led by German MEP Daniel Freund (Greens/EFA), called on the Parliament to protect the rule of law in Slovenia.
“The situation in Slovenia is getting worse, with every week a new law being passed. Now they even want to privatise access to water! And people are getting more afraid. Everybody who dares to speak out is being attacked by the private media detained by the ruling party. We are turning into a new Hungary”, Mr Jenull told EUROPE, wearing the rallying sign of the bicycle protesters on his shirt.
70% of Slovenes want early elections and the government currently enjoys less than 40% support, Mr Jenull insisted, adding that demonstrations have been taking place every Friday for more than a year under threat of fines.
“We want people in the EU not to think just about politics and democracy but about what the EU really stands for, and it should stand for democracy, rule of law and freedom of expression. If they are not protecting this in one of the Member State, I don’t know what the point of the EU is, except for economic benefits, which I don’t think is the main issue”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Agathe Cherki)