Those who want EU money, must respect basic rules

The EU must have corrective tools at the ready when judges are silenced, the media is attacked and public corruption is omnipresent in a Member State. The EPP Group wants a functioning rule of law conditionality in the next multiannual EU budget and a permanent fair and non-discriminatory monitoring of the rule of law in all Member States.

Petri Sarvamaa MEP, who is leading the negotiations with the Council Presidency on the rule of law budget conditionality on behalf of Parliament, stressed: “The mandate I have from the European Parliament is clear: those who want to receive EU money, must respect basic EU rules. We need a properly functioning conditionality mechanism. A conditionality which cannot ever be triggered in practice when only a few Member States block it, is not something the Parliament is ready to leave the negotiating table with.”

Such a financial conditionality tool, however, must be accompanied by an improved and non-discriminatory monitoring of the rule of law in all Member States.

Vladimír Bilčík MEP, the EPP Group’s Spokesman on the Parliament’s proposal for the new monitoring mechanism, said: “We need a permanent, effective and fair EU Mechanism on Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights to monitor and guard the rule of law across all Member States. Today’s vote in the European Parliament sends a strong signal to other EU Institutions. It is time to act and protect the rule of law in Europe.”