The European Economic and Social Committee has taken a tough stance on breaches of the rule of law in the EU, declaring that it is committed to ensuring that the Council of the European Union and the European Commission impose high dissuasive penalties on Member States which systematically disrespect the rule of law in a way that puts the EU budget at risk.

In the own-initiative opinion Rule of law and the recovery fund adopted at its plenary session on 20 January, the EESC welcomes EU Regulation 2020/2092, which enables the Commission to impose financial penalties for systematic shortcomings in the rule of law in a given EU country, and calls for the regulation to be applied strictly in all areas that are relevant to the budget.

"The rule of law is the indispensable basis for a democratic, pluralistic society in Europe and for the continued existence of the EU," said the rapporteur for the opinion, Christian Bäumler.

In order to tackle systematic failures to comply with the rule of law, the EESC recommends that the EU use all other means of sanction, such as the infringement procedure provided for in Article 263 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union and the procedure set out in Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union.

In the EESC's view, if an EU country systematically violates the rule of law, this always compromises, or at least seriously jeopardises, the implementation of EU-funded programmes and is detrimental to the EU budget. That is why it is essential that all beneficiaries of payments from the Union budget comply with transparency rules and are able to fully demonstrate what the funds are used for.

The national recovery and resilience plans should also spell out the measures that the respective governments will take to strengthen the rule of law.
However, most of the national plans submitted so far include too few initiatives in this regard. Moreover, in its assessment of these plans, the Commission did not attach enough importance to the rule of law, which the EESC finds regrettable.

In the opinion, the EESC urges all Member States to take part in the European Public Prosecutor's Office's enhanced cooperation, and calls for this to become a prerequisite for participating in EU-funded programmes. This cooperation is already starting to yield results and is likely to contribute in the long term to a huge improvement in cross-border criminal prosecution. (ll)