The European Affairs Ministers of the EU Member States will resume their work, on Tuesday 12 April, on the Commission’s 2021 annual report on the state of the Rule of law in each Member State. They will take stock of the Conference on the Future of Europe, which is entering its crucial phase of restitution of a year of citizens’ debates.
On Tuesday, the General Affairs Council of the EU will discuss the situation in five countries - Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands and Austria.
Published in July 2021 (see EUROPE 12766/2), the Commission’s second report focuses on four areas: the independence of the judiciary, the fight against corruption, media pluralism and institutional balance.
The ministerial discussion will be a time for Member States to discuss their practices and share experiences, a kind of “peer review” to develop a “shared culture of the Rule of law”, said a European diplomat on Friday 8 April.
The exercise, last held in November (see EUROPE 12838/9), was described as “routine” at the time by the EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders. But the debate could be more “challenging” this time, the diplomat said with a touch of irony, referring to Hungary and the “very dynamic” position that should be defended by Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga, known for her outspoken stance against the Commission and with the renewed legitimacy that Hungarians have given to the ‘Orbán’ government.
This debate will take place a few days after the Commission decided to activate the conditionality mechanism for EU funds against Budapest (see EUROPE 12926/15). In addition, Hungary will be the subject of a specific hearing of the General Affairs Council on 30 May under Article 7 of the European Treaty.
Conference on the Future of Europe. Ministers will be informed of the outcome of the Conference’s General Assembly, which took place on 8 and 9 April in Strasbourg. On this occasion, the nine thematic working groups presented their recommendations to the four components of the General Assembly (Commission, EU Council, European Parliament and national parliaments).
See the recommendations of the nine working groups: - education, culture, youth (https://aeur.eu/f/17u ); - European democracy (https://aeur.eu/f/17s ); - rights and values (https://aeur.eu/f/17M ); - health (https://aeur.eu/f/17r ); - migration (https://aeur.eu/f/17q ); - a stronger social economy (https://aeur.eu/f/17O ); - climate and environment (https://aeur.eu/f/17L ); - digital transition (https://aeur.eu/f/17v ); - the EU in the world (https://aeur.eu/f/17t ).
The aim is to integrate the fruits of these discussions so that each working group can produce “consolidated proposals” for the final meeting of the Plenary, scheduled for 29 and 30 April in Strasbourg.
At this meeting, each Plenary component will determine which of the consolidated proposals on the list have priority and the Plenary will propose an indicative ranking of all proposals to be forwarded to the Executive Board, says a note from the French Presidency of the EU Council.
However, according to a parliamentary source, the EU Council decided not to take a decision on the proposals. The silence of the Member States should allow the proposals to pass through the Plenary, but it prevents any contradictory and transparent debate on these proposals with the Member States, the source criticised.
Between the end of April and Monday 9 May, the Executive Board will have to decide how it intends to present the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe in its final report. The French Presidency suggests that this final report be organised in two parts: one presenting the activities accomplished and the other presenting all the final proposals in a hierarchical order.
Finally, the closing event of the Conference will take place on 9 May, Europe Day, when the final conclusions will be handed over to the three co-chairs of the Conference, Ms Metsola, Ms von der Leyen and Mr Macron.
In the European Parliament, MEPs from pro-European political families are in favour of measures requiring a change of treaty and are ready to open a Convention. The Parliament is currently considering how to initiate such a process on the basis of Article 48 of the European Treaty.
Foresight. Over lunch, the ministers will discuss the European Commission’s 2021 Strategic Foresight Report, which identifies ten areas of activity - such as disruptive technologies, defence and security, health and the food chain - in which the European Union must act to strengthen its strategic autonomy while remaining open to the world (see EUROPE 12785/3).
Finally, contrary to what the French Presidency had initially planned, the General Affairs Council will not be able to reach a political agreement in principle (‘general approach’) on Tuesday on the proposal for a regulation aiming to regulate online political advertising and related to the revision of the statute for European political parties (see EUROPE 12916/23 and 12840/5). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Mathieu Bion)