Hungary and Poland continue to be the red beacons of Europe in terms of democratic health.
The European Commission’s annual report on the situation of the rule of law in the Union, published yesterday, notes deficiencies of a “systemic nature” in both countries and notes that their governments, in the hands of ultra-conservative parties, are among the slowest to make the necessary reforms to correct the problems. The authoritarian drift in both countries has led the EU to freeze nearly 90,000 million in European funds in total, both items from the cohesion fund and the recovery plan.
The chapter of the report dedicated to Poland is particularly negative and does not indicate any significant progress in any of the areas examined. The Commission lacks measures to improve the independence of judicial investigations, especially in the field of corruption, as well as the independence of the Court of Auditors or the Public Prosecutor’s Office with respect to the Government. The report detects problems in the granting of licenses to the media, the rules on the integrity of political representatives or the control of lobbies.
Brussels pointed to some specific improvements in the situation of democracy in Hungary, in general in sectors related to the attempts of the Government of Viktor Orbán that the EU allows them to access tens of billions of euros in community aid that have have been frozen due to problems in their State of Law.
The Community Executive calls on Budapest to make more efforts to prosecute high-level corruption cases and measures to improve the independence of the media, but welcomes, for example, the measures taken to strengthen the independence of the governing body of judges in Magyar country
The situation in Poland and Hungary is “slowly improving in some areas, specifically in those where the EC asks them to freeze their funds”, but “they are lagging behind in all others”, concluded the German MEP Daniel Freund (Greens), very active in the monitoring work of the Eurochamber with both countries. In this sense, the system “works” because without financial sanctions there would have been no changes in the judicial field, but “most of the reforms are basically there on paper”, says Freund, who calls on the Commission not to conform with the “homeopathic measures” that do not change the “authoritarian course” of the two governments and that does not yield to the pressure to unblock access to European funds.
Beyond the situation in these two countries, or the criticism of Spain for not having followed its recommendations to unblock the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary (see Politics section), the European Commission was relatively optimistic yesterday. “This report on the rule of law shows that there has not been a worsening or a radical setback in any member state”, highlighted the vice-president of the Community Executive, Vera Jourovà, who clarified that even so it will not happen never satisfied, since “there are many things to improve”. Around 65% of the recommendations issued last year to the member states in parallel with the publication of their status report have had a “total or partial” follow-up, he celebrated.
The advances in the situation of the State of law in Romania and Bulgaria – especially, in the field of the fight against corruption and judicial independence – have led the European Commission to the conclusion that it is no longer necessary for them to be under the system of tutelage launched in 2007, when they joined the Union. Brussels, which advanced its intentions a few months ago, will now make official its proposal to the Council and the Eurochamber to leave behind the cooperation and verification mechanism (MCV) created specifically for both countries. Bulgaria passed the final exam in 2019, but Romania didn’t until the end of 2022. From now on, the health of their democracies will be assessed using the same instruments as other countries.
