The European Commission’s annual audit of democratic standards is overly positive and ultimately ineffective as it is not tied to any enforcement mechanism, The Guardian reports.
The annual reports on the rule of law were launched five years ago and are presented by the commission as a key weapon in its armoury against democratic backsliding. They include corruption and attacks on independent media and the judiciary across the EU.
However, Liberties, a network of civil liberties organisations across the EU, pointed to a number of “significant deficiencies” on Monday. “Swift and decisive action” was needed to enable the commission to uphold the rule of law within the bloc, according to Viktor Kazai, Liberties’ expert.
The commission’s annual rule of law report is certainly useful for detecting violations – it’s effective as a monitoring exercise. It has country-specific recommendations; that’s great.
But without a direct link to sanctions mechanisms, such as a recent law-making EU funding contingent on democratic standards or the Article 7 “nuclear option” procedure, the report was “completely ineffective as an enforcement tool”, Kazai added.
The report was shelved by Ursula von der Leyen as she sought Rome’s backing for re-election as chair of the bloc’s executive. The commission has since insisted that the publication was not delayed in an attempt to woo Giorgia Meloni’s government.
The EU executive is painting “too rosy a picture” of the real progress and impact of its recommendations, Liberties argues. It notes that the commission’s 2024 report claims that 68 per cent of the 2023 rule of law recommendations have been implemented by member states.
In fact, the group says, many of these reforms have already been announced by capitals, or are ostensibly underway but not finalised and yet to be evaluated. As a result, only 19 per cent of the 2023 recommendations have been implemented.
Austria, France and Germany really should be implementing the commission’s recommendations. The fact that they don’t encourages others [not to]. The rule of law is being systematically dismantled by some governments and the next commission must do better.
