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Today, the European Commission publishes its first report on the rule of law for each Member State, which will examine four areas in each Member State (independence of the judiciary, system of checks and balances, fight against corruption, diversity of media and freedoms) . Before the report, there was great tension between Hungary and the Commission, which had been under the rule of law for 2 years, as Vera Jourová had already made some strong messages about the state of the rule of law and democracy in Hungary on Friday past.
In reference to this, Justice Minister Judit Varga and later Viktor Orbán also called for the immediate resignation of Jourová for the statements offending the Hungarian people, but yesterday he was strongly defended by the President of the Commission, so he is expected to remain in office. This afternoon, together with another EU Commissioner, Didier Reynders, they will present the reports in Brussels.
Speaking of these, they gave a brief interview to Politico, while the newspaper also obtained information on the content of the report. On this basis, it turned out that in all Member States there are problems in one of the four areas mentioned above, in some countries there are problems in several areas and some countries are named after the document.
According to the job summary
the independence of the judiciary is at stake, especially in Hungary and Poland,
but there are also “challenges” in Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia. Additionally the report is particularly concerned about attacks on journalists in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia and Spain.
The Commission intends the report on the rule of law to be the first step in starting a meaningful dialogue, as the four issues have finally been discussed in a uniform way in all Member States, so that, in principle, they have dealt with address issues in an objective and comparable way. Vera Jourová also indicated that the report and the proposals it contained were ultimately expand the Commission’s toolbox, address the problems of the rule of law in the Member States in due course. The body has the possibility to initiate infringement procedures, including the Article 7 rule of law procedure, but these often take time to respond to problems, while the annual report on the rule of law, which is now available annually, can provide an early warning and prevention mechanism through dialogue.
The first report on the rule of law appears just as Anyway, there is a debate about the conditions under which EU money should be linked to the rule of law. On the basis of a summer deal between heads of state and government, the German presidency on Monday presented a proposal, which is too soft for the northern member states and the European Parliament, but too harsh for the justice minister as Hungarian government representative. The content of the report on the rule of law itself, under the German proposal, would not be a basis for suspending or cutting EU money, as the report examines a much broader scope than sanctions in principle for money. but it can highlight sensitive areas in individual Member States and on the basis of these the German proposal could even be toughened.
Cover Image Source: Pool / Getty Images
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