On Tuesday 19 September, the Member States’ European Affairs Ministers held a fairly brief discussion on the European Commission’s annual report on the Rule of law, focusing mainly on the evaluation of this annual dialogue, organised around a horizontal debate on these Commission publications and on discussions specific to the Member States.
During this discussion, the Member States generally approved this methodology and welcomed the Commission’s proposal, made last week in Strasbourg, to extend future annual reports to the EU candidate countries.
However, they were keen to develop new ideas to strengthen this annual dialogue, even if they felt that it was already bearing fruit in terms of reforms in member countries.
Countries such as Hungary and Poland have mentioned the need to diversify the sources used to prepare these Commission reports, and to strengthen the role of the EU Council in this process. According to a European source, Hungary has asked to be allowed to comment on the recommendations made by the Commission in its annual reports.
At the end of this year, the Council of the EU will adopt conclusions on the evaluation of this annual dialogue on the Rule of law.
The discussion remained calm on Tuesday, and did not give rise to any particular invective.
Five countries will now be the subject of analyses in October on judicial reform, corruption, media pluralism and checks and balances, and Article 7 hearings on Hungary and Poland are also scheduled for later in the year. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)