EU ministers, candidate countries kickstart rule of law reform talks

European affairs ministers and their counterparts from EU candidate countries started informal talks on Tuesday (30 April) on how to strengthen the rule of law both within the bloc and in countries seeking to join it.

This is “a glimpse of what it will be to discuss among 37 member states [when all candidates join],” Values Commissioner Věra Jourová and Belgian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib told the press after an informal ministerial meeting.

At the talks, the Belgian EU Council presidency, alongside the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), presented a paper containing proposals on how to make sure future reforms on both sides uphold the rule of law within the bloc and in countries seeking to join. 

The report warned that rule of law reforms in candidate countries have not “yielded expected results” and the EU has failed to prevent backsliding within some of its current members.

In the context of Hungary’s democratic backsliding under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the challenges to the rule of law posed by the former Polish far-right-led government, the EU is trying to find ways to strengthen its monitoring and enforcement of the rule of law standards to be ready to welcome new members. 

EU accession talks are normally guided by the “fundamentals first”-approach, where the rule of law, fighting corruption, and fundamental rights are linked with economic governance, the strengthening of democratic institutions, and public administration reform in candidate countries.

Conditionality on funds ‘best way to go’

After continued pressure from the European Parliament, the EU approved in 2021 the so-called ‘conditionality mechanism’ whereby the European Commission can suspend payments of EU funds to member states in cases of breaches of rule of law principles. 

Conditionality in EU funding is the most “effective” mechanism as it has an “immediate and tangible” impact and does not require unanimity from all member states to approve, the report stated.

It proposed extending this conditionality to EU candidate countries by “making the release of new funding to enlargement countries conditional to the implementation of the latest rule of law acquis,” and “justifying more thoroughly” how conditionality is applied. 

The conditionality mechanism has been recently under question as the European Parliament argued the Commission had taken a political decision rather than objective assessments when it unfroze €10 billion in funds for Hungary in March. 

Following the decision, the European Parliament filed a lawsuit against the Commission before the EU’s Court of Justice, which experts say will shed light on whether the Commission can conduct objective assessments or whether the scrutinising powers should be transferred to an independent entity instead. 

Treaty reform?

Calling on the next EU leadership after June’s elections to raise the rule of law on the agenda, the report proposes to increase the presence of EU candidate countries in the bloc’s agencies and networks that handle rule of law matters, as well as the launch of an annual forum on rule of law and enlargement. 

In November 2023, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen already announced the EU’s annual rule of law reports assessing the status of a country would be extended to all country candidates, too. 

There are nine official candidates for EU membership – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Kosovo applied for membership in 2022.

With enlargement on the horizon, the report proposed revising EU treaties to specify rule of law commitments by member states, “including through the introduction of an explicit link between the rule of law and the internal market.”

Asked about reopening treaties to strengthen the rule of law enforcement, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said that for the time being the EU has enough internal tools, such as Article 7, with which EU countries can strip one of the members of voting rights.

“If we take Article 7 and push it further, if we apply it more quickly, then we will get to the end of the decision-making chain more quickly,” Lahbib said. 

However, Lahbib left the door open to treaty reform in the long term.

“Looking ahead to enlargement, we know this is going to take a certain amount of time. In that context, we could consider reopening the treaty and perhaps tie the single market more closely to the rule of law,” she added.

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/ Zoran Radosavljevic]

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