On Wednesday 14 September, after a tense debate on the rule of law in Hungary (see EUROPE 13022/1), the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) presented its report on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU in 2020 and 2021 to the plenary. Put to the vote on Thursday 15 September, the text was adopted with 410 votes in favour, 131 against and 42 abstentions. The amendments, presented by the political groups ECR and ID, were rejected.
Once again, the report calls on the European Commission to make use of “all the tools at its disposal, including the procedure envisaged under the rule of law conditionality mechanism”, with explicit reference to Hungary, but also to Poland. The amendments presented by the ECR group, aimed at deleting the explicit reference to the two Member States subject to an ‘Article 7’ procedure on the respect of the rule of law, were finally rejected, being supported almost exclusively by votes from the ECR and ID groups.
MEPs also called on the Commission and the EU Council to start negotiations for a Union mechanism for democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights (see EUROPE 12885/16).
Present at the debate, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, highlighted the 2022 report on the rule of law which, for the first time and on the recommendation of the Parliament, contains country-specific recommendations (see EUROPE 12992/1, EUROPE 12791/7). For him, it is an “ important tool for monitoring the rule of law” in the EU, which can also serve “as a basis for policy debates at many levels”.
Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spanish), chair of the LIBE Committee and rapporteur on the text, highlighted that fundamental rights are never taken for granted, although the EU remains “an oasis of rights and freedoms”. “It is therefore a difficult balance to strike when it comes to reporting serious violations - and we have reported them - of fundamental rights and the rule of law in the EU, against specific situations that deserve attention[...], but do not present a systemic risk”, he said.
The report also condemns persistent discrimination in the EU, particularly against the LGBTQI+ and Roma communities and denounces “structural racism in the EU”. In addition, there was discussion of fundamental rights violations at the EU’s borders, repression of civil society, gender violence, media freedom and environmental protection.
Between agreements and disagreements
A majority of MEPs welcomed the efforts made to overcome divisions and reach a consensus, but the outcome of the report presented to the plenary was not without its challenges.
Firstly, on the issue of the health crisis. While the text stresses that “the restrictive measures taken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic have infringed a wide range of fundamental rights”, MEP Rob Rooken (ECR, Dutch) felt that it should have denounced the implementation of the European Covid certificate, compulsory vaccination in some Member States, and the lockdowns. The amendments he presented to this effect were rejected by the plenary.
Finally, the text had been changed between its first draft and the version presented on Wednesday. Nicolaus Fest (ID, German) wrote that the initial version of the report denounced the Commission’s “identity politics” and the time spent by the Parliament “targeting conservative Member States, such as Hungary or Poland”.
After 392 amendments, Juan Fernando López Aguilar took over as rapporteur. Nicolaus Fest submitted his first version as a single amendment for a vote in plenary, without success.
See the adopted report: https://aeur.eu/f/33q (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)