(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 26 - The European Commission on Wednesday published its fifth annual report on the development of rule of law across the bloc - including, for the first time, four enlargement candidate countries.
Emerging challenges.
Stronger rule of law and better preparedness to tackle challenges is the verdict of the European Commission's 2024 Rule of Law report published on Wednesday which evaluates the rule of law developments in the 27 member states of the European Union.
"Member States and the EU as a whole are much better prepared to detect, prevent and address emerging challenges," according to a European Commission press release.
The overall rule-of-law report found that 68 percent of changes the Commission had recommended in last year's document had been fully or partially addressed across all the countries scrutinised.
However, in some countries - prominently in Hungary - issues remain or have deteriorated. Media freedom is still at risk in several EU countries, the European Commission said.
"This year's report shows that Member States have improved and strengthened the rule of law not least by implementing the Commission's recommendations. Unfortunately, concerns remain in several Member States in different categories," said Věra Jourová, European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency who presented the report on Wednesday together with her colleague EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders.
The report is published annually since 2020 and is a check-up of the European Union's standards of government, corruption safeguards, and civil society conditions and the state of media freedom. It plays a preventive role, designed to help in the early detection and prevention of issues in the rule of law area by evaluating the situation for the EU as a whole as well as its member states. The report also issues recommendations which are non-binding.
For the first time, EU accession candidates Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are included in the report.
Particularly damning marks for Hungary.
Hungary falls well short of EU democratic standards, notably on corruption, bribery, political funding, conflicts of interest and lack of media independence, according to a European Commission evaluation published on Wednesday, underlining a growing rift between Brussels and Budapest.
"Hungary is a real systemic issue for the commission about the rule of law," Didier Reynders told a news conference, presenting the report.
The country made minimal to no progress on rule of law breaches identified in the last annual EU report, and the Commission has lengthened its total recommended remedies for Hungary to pursue to eight - one more than last year.
"I think that's an absolute record for the rule of law report," one EU official said on condition of not being identified.
Hungary, currently holding the EU presidency, has angered its EU partners on a range of issues including perceived democratic backsliding in many domestic areas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's rogue diplomacy in Moscow and stalling aid for Ukraine.
In Hungary, media pluralism and freedom were said to be under threat, with the composition of the media regulator and the lack of transparency on state advertising and media ownership all posing problems.
Hungarian public-sector corruption "remains high" in the view of experts and businesses, with high-level corruption in particular not being identified by prosecutors, the report said.
Transparency shortcomings on political party and campaign funding "remain unaddressed", the report further said.
The eight reforms the Commission urged Hungary to undertake also include improvements to its justice system, boosting oversight of lobbying and the independence of the media regulator, as well as removing obstacles encountered by civil society organisations.
The report is particularly problematic for the government of right-wing populist Orbán because billions in EU funding have been frozen due to deficits in the rule of law. Last year, only a partial sum was released following a number of judicial reforms.
Media freedom across the bloc has to be protected from creeping threats Working conditions for journalists and "the lack of independence of public service media governance in several countries remain issues of concern", the Commission said.
In Slovakia, the dissolution of the public broadcaster Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS) in July to set up a new media organisation (Slovak Television and Radio, STVR) caused concern about the future independence of the new entity.
While the country has made some progress improving journalists' safety, the Commission sees further need for progress - also in regard to the editorial independence of public media and the strengthening of independent management.
In Italy, the independence of the public service broadcaster RAI "represents a long-standing source of concern" over governance and funding issues. Comprehensive reform is needed "to ensure that RAI is better shielded from risks of political interference", the Commission said, referencing contributions from media organisations in Italy.
There was also no progress in transparency surrounding media ownership, the Commission said, while underlining that the country's defamation regime has also not improved. Death threats, physical attacks and intimidation towards journalists "continue to raise concerns on the safety of journalists in Italy", the Commission said. It called on the government to continue the process of reform the law on defamation, which is a criminal offence in Italy, with the abolishment of the penalty of imprisonment for press defamation.
Issues of editorial independence in public broadcasters in Romania and Malta have also not been resolved, the Commission said. Concerns regarding the transparency of media ownership in Bulgaria persist.
For Croatia, a lack of progress concerning the transparency of state advertisement in the media has been identified in the Commission's report.
In neighbouring Slovenia, some progress in the protection of journalists in the country since the last report was made but certain safeguards are expected to be introduced in the new media legislation which is currently being prepared, the report mentions.
The Commission said, that "while the new governance model contributed to improving the independence of RTV Slovenija, the public service broadcaster is facing a financial crisis and changes to its funding are needed to guarantee appropriate resources".
Regarding the Dutch media landscape, the European Commission states that the Netherlands must continue to support the quality of public broadcasting and also strengthen the conditions for public media "to uphold journalistic standards".
Ongoing attempts to reform public broadcasting are a source of worry, in addition to the trend of newspapers, magazines and broadcasters gradually becoming part of an increasingly smaller number of media companies.
While people in Germany are well protected against the arbitrary exercise of power by the government, the report calls for progress to be made regarding a plan for the press' right to information vis-à-vis federal authorities.
To shore up media freedom across the bloc from creeping threats, the EU passed the European Media Freedom Act, set to enter into force on August 8, 2025, which established EU-wide legal safeguards for editorial independence and the protection of journalistic sources.
Some progress in tackling corruption and perceived judical independence The Spanish government considers that the Rule of Law report recognises progress in Spain after the approval of the amnesty law and the agreement to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), as "a great success".
The report also showed "concern" in regards to the actions of some regional governments such as the Balearic Islands for closing their anti-corruption office, or Valencia for reducing the budget of its anti-fraud office.
The Rule of Law report also looked at the level of perceived judicial independence. Some countries - Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden - ranked very high with scores above 75 percent. Poland, Bulgaria and Croatia scored low marks, below 30 percent.
Poland, however, stood out in a positive light than before as the European Commission announced in May this year that the "conditions for maintaining the [Article 7] procedure no longer existed".
Croatia made some progress in the fight against corruption and significant progress in terms of the level of remuneration of judges and prosecutors.
For Germany, the Commission sees the current remuneration of judges and public prosecutors as a risk and recommends measures to ensure an appropriate level of remuneration. The report recommends extending the period during which federal ministers and parliamentary state secretaries are not allowed to work in the lobby departments of companies or organisations after leaving office.
While Portugal has made some progress in adapting human resources to the judicial system, the Commission recommended an increase in the number of judicial staff - particularly court clerks - in order to improve effectiveness of procedures especially in the fight against corruption. The Netherlands, too, received recommendations to tackle the workload and staff shortages in the judicial services.
For Bulgaria, the report acknowledged the start of revising the existing anti-corruption strategy and positive steps to improve access to information held by public authorities. The Commission also pointed out that a comprehensive constitutional reform was adopted last year to improve juridical independence, addressing long-standing concerns. However, while rules for law-making improved, issues with implementation and concerns about the quality of the legislative process remain.
Enlargement Countries included for the first time.
For the first time, the European Commission also looked at the rule of law developments in some of the "most advanced" enlargement candidate countries though not issuing recommendations as they will be formulated in the Enlargement Report. The EU executive believes that this may aid the countries' reform efforts and thus supports their progress on their European path.
For Serbia, the report mentioned the substantial reforms the country has undergone in recent years, pointing out the constitutional reform underway aiming to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. At the same time, among other things, the report states that the political pressure on the judiciary and the prosecutor's office is still high and there are shortcomings regarding the financing of political parties.
(The content is based on news by agencies participating in the enr, in this case AFP, ANSA, ANP, BTA, dpa, EFE, HINA, LUSA, STA, TASR, Tanjug). (ANSA).