JURI

Motion for a Resolution by the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI)

Who rules the world? Law! – In light of Poland and Hungary vetoing the NextGenerationEU recovery plan in 2020, debates about the connection between the rule of law mechanism schemes in the plan and the conflicts with their governments not acting according to democratic European values have been brought up. How should the EU protect the integrity of the EU’s Justice System and the rule of law across Member States?

Submitted by Stijn Boerma (Het Heerlanden), Janou Gregorowitsch (Mencia de Mendoza), Boet Hejmerink (Vechtstede College), Elodie Kho (Barlaeus Gymnasium),  Amy Tarling (Mencia de Mendoza), Fenna Winter (Vechtstede College), Tomas Winegar (Chairperson, FI)

The European Youth Parliament,

  1. Concerned by the lack of agreement in the interpretation of EU values as set out in Treaty of the EU (TEU) by Member States,
  2. Noting that subjective interpretations of EU values make defining rule of law breaches objectively difficult,
  3. Aware of select Member States implementing legislation which increasingly conflicts with the EU’s core values,
  4. Regretting that the rule of law mechanism is seen as a politically charged measure,
  5. Conscious of Member States’ struggles implementing effective measures to support the rule of law,
  6. Noting with deep regret the EU’s lack of tools to tackle moderate rule of law breaches,
  7. Alarmed that current rule of law measures allow for Member States sanctioned by the conditionality mechanism to impair the functioning of the EU in protest,
  8. Profoundly concerned that the conditionality mechanism may negatively affect EU Citizens and neighboring Member States while having limited effect on non-cooperative governments;
  1. Directs the Council of the EU to create quantifiable indicators of the values described in Article 2 TEU;
  2. Calls upon the European Commission to expand the rule of law mechanism by including:
    1. a numerical score for each country in the Annual Rule of Law Report,
    2. specific scores where sanctions are put in place,
    3. specific individual recommendations in the Annual Rule of Law Report on how to address rule of law concerns in Member States;
  3. Asks the European Commission to create a media campaign including articles clarifying the procedures of and motivations behind the rule of law mechanism;
  4. Proposes the European Commission to create new sanctions for moderate breaches of rule of law, based on the sanctions used in the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism;
  5. Requests the European Commission to expand the conditionality mechanism by having future instances of its use include the suspension of EU budget veto rights.