On Wednesday 13 July, the European Commission presented its third annual report on the Rule of law in Member States, accompanied for the first time by country-specific recommendations to be assessed in the next edition. The Commission also looked for the first time at the state of public media and its financing.
As a fire hit the Greek media outlet Real’s buildings on the morning the report was presented, the Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, and the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said that the 2022 report was more about threats to journalists’ safety.
The Vice-President will try to address this issue “after the summer” with the Media Freedom Act. The 2022 report also addressed the issue of lobbies and their influence on public policy.
Unsurprisingly, the new edition, which has four main chapters (the independence of the judiciary, media freedom, the fight against corruption and the overall equilibrium of checks and balances), confirms the Commission’s concerns about the situation in Poland and Hungary regarding the independence of the judiciary, to which seven and eight recommendations are addressed respectively. But other countries are being singled out.
Independence of the judiciary. In Poland, where disciplinary proceedings against judges and the systemic nature of attacks on judicial independence continue to be of concern, it is therefore recommended, in addition to complying with EU Court of Justice rulings for stimulus funds to be released, to “separate the function of the Minister of Justice from that of the Prosecutor-General and ensure functional independence of the prosecution service from the Government, ensure independent and effective investigations and prosecutions, address the broad scope of immunities for top executives and abstain from introducing impunity clauses in legislation in order to enable a robust track record of high-level corruption cases”.
For Hungary, in addition to addressing concerns raised under the regime of conditionality for EU funds, it is recommended to “strengthen the role of the National Judicial Council while safeguarding its independence, to effectively counter-balance the powers of the President of the National Office for the Judiciary”, in order to “remove judicial appointments outside the normal procedure and to establish a robust track record of investigations, prosecutions and final judgments for high-level corruption cases”.
Greece also raises concerns with the appointment procedures for the most senior positions of judges and prosecutors. The system of “appointments raises concerns as being subject to a potentially strong influence from the executive”, the Commission writes.
Spain has not been forgotten either, as the delays in the renewal of the Council for the Judiciary remain of concern. In Bulgaria, “there are increasing concerns related to the functioning of the Supreme Judicial Council”, the Commission also writes.
In general, the perception of judicial independence varies greatly between Member States and has even decreased in half of the Member States, the Commission notes.
While in Finland, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany the level of perception of independence remains particularly high among the general public (over 75%), it is below 30% in Slovakia, Poland and Croatia.
Media. As regards the media, the report is based on the Media Pluralism Monitor, which assesses the risks to media freedom and pluralism in all Member States. The indicator on the journalistic profession and its protection showed a slight deterioration, the Commission notes. And “news media concentration retains its very high risk level across the continent”.
Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovenia are considered high risk for each of the media criteria assessed.
On the financing of public media, “risks of politicisation” exist for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia and Poland.
Regarding the safety of journalists, threats and physical attacks have been frequently reported in Greece, the report notes, and the government has recently signed a memorandum of understanding on the protection of journalists.
In Croatia, the professional environment for journalists is impacted by verbal aggressions against journalists, including by politicians, and in Slovenia, a hostile environment, online harassment and threats against journalists are of growing concern.
Corruption. The report notes some improvements in the fight against corruption.
Poland, for example, has increased criminal sanctions for corruption in public life and Greece has strengthened the definition of active and passive corruption. Finland is considering criminalising trading in influence, while Slovakia aims to broaden the definition of corruption in its national law.
But specific legislative gaps remain in other Member States, for example “in Sweden, on the legal definition of foreign bribery”.
A Eurobarometer on corruption published on the same day shows that corruption remains a serious concern for EU citizens and businesses.
Almost seven out of ten Europeans (68%) think that corruption is widespread in their country and more than four out of ten Europeans (41%) consider that the level of corruption has increased in their country. Furthermore, more than six in ten European companies (63%) consider the problem of corruption to be widespread in their country, and a majority of companies (51%) think it unlikely that corrupt individuals or companies in their country would be arrested or reported to the police or prosecutors.
Lobbying. The report points to the lack of specific regulation in a number of countries.
Recommendations are being addressed to Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia either to complete lobbying reforms or, as in the case of Paris, to ensure that the rules apply to all actors, including “at top executive level”.
Finally, the report looks at the equilibrium of checks and balances in the Member States. Didier Reynders pointed to a rather positive trend, as some countries have strengthened the powers of fundamental rights monitoring authorities or given new powers to ombudspersons and independent bodies.
However, other countries still do not have such structures, such as the Czech Republic.
Reactions. Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said the Commission, with its report, “wants to overthrow the government in Poland”, AFP reported.
In the European Parliament, the EPP group said that this annual report could be very useful, if it is “used well”.
Greek MEP Konstantinos Arvanitis from The Left expressed concern about the picture painted of his country. “The resulting image, even if a number of other problems are not mentioned at all (the issue of migrants is not addressed in the report), is that of a country where the Rule of law is suffering”.
The Commissioner for Justice said that he will try to organise debates with the European Parliament on each country.
Link to the annual report: https://aeur.eu/f/2me
Link to the recommendations: https://aeur.eu/f/2mf
Link to the country chapters: https://aeur.eu/f/2mg (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)