Members of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) said in a resolution that there are still areas for methodological improvement and that specific concerns have been identified in EU countries, according to the statement.
More specifically, they adopted, by 46 votes to 7 with no abstentions, the own-initiative report by Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D) on the European Commission’s Annual Report 2022 on the rule of law in the EU27 (see EUROPE 12992/1).
Elected representatives have welcomed the Commission’s focus on public service media and transparency of media ownership, as well as on the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and the financing of political parties and organisations to promote equality.
However, they have noted worrying trends regarding press freedom and the safety of journalists in several Member States.
They also deplore the fact that the European Commission has still not taken into account some of the European Parliament’s demands, such as extending its analysis to all EU values.
Furthermore, the conclusions of these annual reports should “be linked to the activation of the tools for protecting the EU’s values and budget, such as the conditionality mechanism“. They also want the next report to better involve NGOs and to more clearly demonstrate the progress and setbacks in the member countries.
Link to the resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/58p (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)