Civil Society, Media and Human Rights Organisations jointly urge the European Commission to strengthen its rule of law reporting content

Today, the ICJ, together with 37 key civil society, human rights, journalist and media support organisations, published a joint public statement on the 2024 Rule of Law Report. The organisations call on the European Commission to strengthen the effectiveness of the rule of law dialogue, improve the impact of reporting and take decisive action against systematic human rights violations in the EU Member States.

The statement highlights that following EU Parliament elections from 6 to 9 June 2024, the new President of the European Commission should demonstrate their commitment and vision for the rule of law by giving the new Commissioner an ambitious mandate to further develop and strengthen the rule of law report and mechanism to become more transparent, participatory and effective.

“At a time when the rule of law is increasingly being called into question across Europe, it is more necessary than ever for the rule of law report to be critical, specific and linked to enforcement tools.” – Joint statement

To further strengthen transparency, participation and effectiveness of the EU rule of law mechanisms, the undersigned organisations established eight practical recommendations to the Commission:

1. Strengthen the rule of law as key priority in the next Commission programme.
2. A strong mandate for new Commissioner for Justice – following European elections in June 2024, the new appointed Justice Commissioner should increase the DG JUST capacity to detect violations in the Member States and to implement CJEU judgements, by working closely with CSOs.
3. Better self-assessment of the rule of law effectiveness – the European Commission should prioritise guiding Member States in the application of rule of law instruments and compliance, throughout a transparent and clear reporting process.
4. Continue the annual rule of law reports and make them more contextual and detailed – recommendations from the Commission’s report should be more specific, measurable and intersectional to open the path to tailored legislative, policy and institutional reform for Member States.
5. Address continuing concerns about civic space – an accountability and reporting mechanism should be created to enable civil society and human rights defenders to prevent unlawful restrictions from Member States.
6. Take firm and systematic action against the non-implementation of court decisions – The European Commission should urgently strengthen the monitoring of the Court of Justice of the EU judgements at national level, by reporting cases of non-implementation and by enforcing sanctions of non-compliance.
7. Protect freedom of expression and information and media freedom – at a time when journalists and media are increasingly attacked, the next Justice Commissioner should prioritize the implementation of ambitious legal instruments in order to protect press freedom and the right to information.
8. Improve the visibility and awareness of the rule of law report – while the Commission has taken up our earlier recommendation to communicate the country visits’ timetables, many issues on the visibility of the report should be addressed, such as the publication date, the user-unfriendly factsheets, the absence of online country pages, and the lack of transparency surrounding the participation process.

Read the full statement here.