Rule of law conditionality must start working now

The EPP Group wants the new Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism to start to work fully as soon as possible and calls on the European Commission to not delay the practical guidelines for the application of the new rules any further.

“The guidelines the Commission is preparing must be adopted by June and the European Parliament has to be consulted before their adoption. There is no reason to delay this. The European Council agreed that the guidelines can be finalised after the EU Court judgment. But this does not mean that the Commission cannot present a first version earlier”, said Petri Sarvamaa MEP, Parliament’s negotiator of the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism, on the Parliament Resolution on the application of the new rules.

The new mechanism agreed last year makes sure that every Member State that wants to receive EU money must stick to the basic principles of democracy and the rule of law.

“The rule of law conditionality has been valid since the beginning of this year. The superfluous European Council conclusions on the adoption of the guidelines do not change this fact. They cannot overwrite a law. We expect that the Commission has been evaluating all possible new and persisting rule of law breaches impacting the financial interests of the EU since the beginning of the year. If the Commission plans to adopt non-binding guidelines on top of its legal duties, it must do so quickly”, added Sarvamaa.

While urging the full applicability of the rule of law budgetary conditionality, Parliament's Resolution does not exclude bringing legal action against the Commission, should it delay the adoption of the guidelines.