The EU27 ministers for European affairs will meet on 3 and 4 March in Arles (France) for an informal meeting devoted, according to the original agenda, to the Rule of law and the various tools available to the EU to strengthen respect for its values.
However, the current war in Ukraine has shifted the agenda, so the ministers will start their meeting with a discussion on enlargement and Ukraine’s application for candidate country status (see other news).
The Arles meeting was conceived by the French Presidency of the EU Council as a way for Member States to discuss without constraints the state of the Rule of law and the effectiveness of the various existing tools, including the so-called Article 7 procedures, which concern Poland and Hungary, the European Commission’s annual reports, and the new regulation on the conditionality of European funds.
The discussion will focus on “how to develop this toolbox”, a diplomatic source said on 2 March. It will also ask questions such as whether the scope of values covered should be extended, for example by extending the tools to the values listed in Article 2 of the Treaty.
More sectoral issues will also be discussed, such as the protection of journalists in the Member States.
The ministers held a hearing on 22 February on the development of Poland’s reform of the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court (see EUROPE 12896/20) and will hold a hearing on Hungary in May. They will also have a debate in March on the European Commission’s 2021 annual report on the Rule of law, focusing on five countries.
The ministers will also review the work of the Conference on the Future of Europe on Thursday and Friday in Arles, but the planned item on multilingualism has been removed from the agenda in view of the current situation in Ukraine. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)