On Tuesday 24 September in Brussels, the EU ministers responsible for European affairs will discuss the state of the rule of law, particularly in certain European Union candidate countries.
This discussion, known as ‘horizontal’, will focus on general trends relating to the rule of law in the EU27. This is the fifth such exercise since 2020. The discussion will be based on the 2024 edition of the European Commission’s annual report, presented in July (see EUROPE 13460/1), which analyses the independence of the judiciary, media freedom, the anti-corruption framework and the balance of checks and balances in all Member States.
It also includes specific recommendations. This discussion is intended to be relatively general in scope, and the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU has promised to act as a neutral presidency, despite the fact that Hungary is subject to the so-called ‘Article 7’ procedure of the Treaty and regularly challenges this work on the rule of law.
On Tuesday, for the first time, the EU27 ministers will debate with representatives of the four candidate countries considered to be the most advanced in the accession process: Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. These four countries were also evaluated by the Commission in its annual report.
In it, the Commission noted that the four candidate countries faced similar challenges to the EU27, particularly with regard to the judicial system. In Montenegro, “significant delays in judicial appointments have had serious repercussions on the judicial system”, it wrote. And in Serbia, “a considerable number of posts for judges and prosecutors remain to be filled”.
This overall discussion will be followed in November, at a new General Affairs Council, by a more specific analysis of four countries: Poland, the Netherlands, Malta and Austria. A new hearing of Hungary in the context of the ‘Article 7’ procedure opened against it will take place in the first half of 2025, under the Polish Presidency of the Council (see EUROPE 13487/16).
The ministers will also take note of the state of relations with various third countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and San Marino, with which various negotiations are underway.
HU24EU. The Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU will present its priorities for this six-month period to the national delegations. These priorities for this sector, which had already been set out at the informal meeting of the General Affairs Council at the beginning of September (see EUROPE 13474/1), concern enlargement, the rule of law and relations with third European countries such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
EUCO. The ministers will also discuss the agenda for the European Council meeting on 17 and 18 October in Brussels. On the agenda are issues such as EU support for Ukraine, the Middle East crisis, European competitiveness, the forthcoming COP29 climate conference and migration.
See the annotated agenda of the European Council: https://aeur.eu/f/djm
Future of the EU. It should be noted that in November and December, the General Affairs Council will hold a discussion on the future of the EU, while in June the European Council asked the European Commission for a report evaluating EU policies in four areas: - values and respect for the Rule of law; - competitiveness and economic sovereignty; - future of the EU budget; - institutional governance
According to a European source, the aim of the Hungarian Presidency is to conduct discussions at a technical level on the development of policies such as cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy, and to “summarise” these discussions to feed into the Commission’s evaluation. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Mathieu Bion)