BRUSSELS – Democratic criteria face “significant challenges” in some European Union countries, hungary and Poland, where judicial systems are under threat, the EU Executive Board said Wednesday in its first report on respect for the rule of law.
The European Commission has described a bleak scenario in both countries. His extensive audit revealed that high-level corruption prosecutions in Hungary were “very limited” and found that Poland was deficient in the four main areas examined: national judicial systems, anti-corruption frameworks, press freedom and controls and balances.
“It is applicable to have a review of these disorders and to see the links between them. Not least because the gaps merge into an imbecile cocktail,” EU Securities commissioner Vera Jourova told reporters.
The report, published a day before the leaders of the 27 EU countries meet in Brussels for a two-day summit, may have implications for discussions on the EU’s long-term budget.
While EU leaders have agreed in advance on an economic recovery plan of EUR 1. 8 trillion for the 2021-2027 budget period, they still want to locate a non-unusual floor on how to distribute money, as many countries insist on the criteria of the rule of law.
Poland and Hungary, who feel they are being unfairly attacked, oppose the idea. The EU has accused countries of violating the rule of law criteria for years and is carrying out sanctions procedures that oppose them.
Hungary, without delay, downplayed the report and rated it as biased.
“The Commission’s report on the rule of law is misleading, but absurd,” the Hungarian government said in a statement. “The concept and method of the Commission’s report on the rule of law is appropriate, its resources are unbalanced and its content is unfounded. “
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki did not refer to the report when he presented his new wardrobe on Wednesday, while Poland’s liberal opposition, the Civic Coalition, presses for the report to criticize the right-wing government, but not the country itself.
“It is the existing leadership team that is so poorly qualified in the report and it is the law and justice (the party) that is for all the disorders to which the European Commission now refers,” Said Civic Coalition Deputy Kamila Gasiuk-Pichowicz.
The EU report also denounced Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and Spain for threats of opposition to hounds, and threats, attacks and smear campaigns against hounds were also reported in Hungary. Bulgaria has also been cited for its lack of judicial independence and its inability to kindly deal with corruption cases.
Bulgarian officials reacted according to the principles of the party. While government officials described the report as an assessment of cabinet efforts to curb corruption, opposition lawmakers said the EU’s findings showed that the government lacked political will to implement mandatory reforms.
“The report is positive, objective and obviously describes the effects of cooperation with the EU,” said Justice Minister Desislava Ahladova.
The president of the left-wing country, Rumen Radev, who has harshly criticized the government and supports the three-month anti-corruption protests in Bulgaria, had another perception.
“They’ve come before,” he said of the report’s findings.
In Poland, the problems are the measures taken by the right-wing government to take the judicial system, especially the judiciary. The report states that “the dual role in which the Minister of Justice is also the Attorney General has raised specific concerns, as vulnerability to political influence increases. “
In Hungary, government-sponsored legislation on media freedoms, minority rights, the electoral formula and educational and devout freedoms have attracted the commission’s attention. The EU report also criticized “the lack of procedures for determined measures to open investigations of criminals and prosecute corruption cases involving senior officials or their rapid entourage. “
In an interview last week with German magazine Der Spiegel, Jourova said the report highlighted an “alarming” symbol and accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of “building a democracy in poor health. “
The story provoked the wrath of Orban, who said Monday that Jourova’s statements had humiliated Hungary and called for his resignation, however, EU officials presented their overwhelming to the commissioner.
“Growing up in communist Czechoslovakia, I know what it’s like to live in a country without the rule of law,” Jourova said. “The European Union also created an antidote to those authoritarian tendencies. “
The committee also tested government measures that limited the non-public freedoms of the coronavirus pandemic and noted that “responses to the crisis have shown strong overall resistance from national systems. “
The committee will then discuss the report with the European Parliament and EU countries.
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Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this report.
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