Commission fails to acknowledge NGOs role with the new Rule of Law mechanism

As a part of the Commission's overall proposal for the future Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) priorities presented on March 11 the Commission put forward a communication on a new EU framework to strengthen the Rule of Law, which specifically includes the respect of fundamental rights. It establishes a mechanism that has immediate effect and does not require treaty reform but it is questionable whether it will have any real effect.

The background to this proposal is according to the Commission ‘the recent events in some Member States have demonstrated that a lack of respect for the rule of law and, as a consequence, also for the fundamental values which the rule of law aims to protect, can become a matter of serious concern. During these events, there has been a clear request from the public at large for the EU, and notably for the Commission, to take action … the Commission and the EU had to find ad hoc solutions since current EU mechanisms and procedures have not always been appropriate in ensuring an effective and timely response to threats to the rule of law’.

The framework sets out a three-stage process; an assessment by the Commission, followed by recommendations, and then follow-up on implementation. If the recommendations are not implemented, the Commission may then consider activating Article 7 ‘the nuclear option’.

The Commission ‘will collect and examine all the relevant information and assess whether there are clear indicators of a systemic threat to the rule of law’ and that they will use the sources by the Council of Europe and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, but nowhere do they recognise the role of civil society organisations in providing information relevant for their assessment. The Open Society Foundation has made a critical assessment of the communication also raising the concern that ‘although its recommendations will be made public, the dialogue with the member states concerned will remain confidential … the procedure would have far greater persuasive power … if all member states, the European Parliament, human rights bodies, including the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and civil society organisations were involved in this dialogue’.

The proposal is based on the Commission’s competences as provided for by existing Treaties and do not require any further steps. The Council has though ‘the opportunity to send the Commission back to the drawing board and underline that the EU needs rather more than just window dressing around Article 7’ (OSI, 2014).

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2014-03-13