On Thursday 19 May, the European Parliament confirmed its position on the latest annual report on the Rule of law in the Member States, published in July 2021 by the Commission (see EUROPE 12935/16) and considered in a resolution adopted by 429 votes to 131 with 34 abstentions. It confirmed that this report, which examines the freedom of the media, the independence of the judiciary, the fight against corruption and the balance of power, is useful, but should be extended to the values covered by Article 2 of the Treaty.
The annual report is also flawed due to “methodological shortcomings” which do not distinguish between systemic violations of the Rule of law and individual violations. The Commission should also move away from “descriptive documentation” to a more “analytical and prescriptive” approach. However, the Commission should start to do this in 2022 with specific recommendations in its third report.
Therefore, as it stands, the Annual Report does not explicitly recognise that “the decline in the Rule of law in Poland and Hungary is a deliberate process”.
Regarding the method, the European Parliament also proposes to create a direct link between the conclusions of the annual reports and the activation of correction mechanisms such as those foreseen in Article 7 of the Treaty or the regulation on the conditionality of funds.
The European Parliament also wants the creation of a European index on the Rule of law and the European civic space.
Link to the resolution here: https://aeur.eu/f/1q9 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)