Speeches

Mr Rzońca, I have a very simple question to you. When you are mixing together the concept of the rule of law and the situation on the ground where Poland has, admirably – I have all respect – taken in an incredible amount of refugees, when you are mixing these two things, do you have some legal grounds for that? And, if you do, can you please explain to this House what they are?

Madam President, quite often in this House and in our parliamentary work we have heard the frustrating words: ‘you will not make this regulation happen, you will never have this mechanism’. Well, I don’t know if this regulation will be a ‘silver bullet’, but it is certainly so far the best and most serious attempt. And now, today, the last remaining obstacle for the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation has been removed. The message from this House is clear. The Parliament’s finger points now to the Commission, and let’s be very clear about this, it is now high time to start implementing the regulation. I’m happy to hear today, Commissioner, that the President of the Commission has said that the Commission will act soon, or now, or whatever the word was. Almost three years ago, the President-elect of the Commission stated in this Chamber before her election that in her term she was committed to rule of law as a European value. She also announced during the speech that she intended to establish an EU—wide monitoring mechanism. Regrettably, Madam President is not here today for this important discussion with the European Parliament, and for a matter of this magnitude, she should be here. But I have to say that a hundred times more regrettable, if not almost embarrassing, is that the chair of the S&D Group sees fit to try to put the PPE Group in an anti—rule of law camp. I have to say that I’m really happy that my co—rapporteur, who also is a socialist and also happens to be from the same Member State, doesn’t think like this because this is not about politics – this is about the rule of law. So, as a co—rapporteur on this regulation, I want to underline that we as a Parliament, together with the German Presidency, created something new to make our Union better and more ... (The President interrupted the speaker) And so now we have to act on the regulation.

Mr President, Commissioner Hahn and the Council, so here we are once again in this Hemicycle, this plenary hall discussing the future of the rule of law in Europe. Once again we, as the Parliament, will reiterate our position, that the Commission has to act and has to act quickly. Once again we will state our worry about the degeneration and regression of the state of rule of law in some Member States, especially Hungary and Poland. Once again, we deliver the messages we have heard from our voters and the citizens, that people are worried about their liberties, minorities being repressed, free media being shut down or bought by government oligarchs, judicial systems being party-politicised and independent judges being replaced by party loyalists. All this done with EU money. With the money distributed from the Union’s budget to the Member States. With taxpayers’ money. And it makes me not only sad, but it makes me outraged. This should not be happening in Europe in 2021. Yet, once again, here we are in this plenary hall, stating these same sentences, even though we have heard them multiple times and we all know the reality behind them. So here we are today because someone has to act. But who is that someone? The Parliament? Well, the Parliament has multiple times stated its readiness and has done everything it can within its powers. However, the Parliament lacks implementing powers. Well, why won’t the Council act? Finding unanimity is very difficult when it comes to actions under Article 7 of the Treaty. And even more, the Council and Member States seem to be blackmailed by the same group that posed a threat to the MFF and Next Generation EU negotiations last autumn. Ultimately, it is in the Member States’ hands how to respond to the growing deterioration of rule of law in Europe. This brings us back to the Commission. Once again, we appeal to the Commission to act. The Parliament has triggered the Article 265 TFEU procedure that also legally calls on the Commission to act. I truly hope that we will finally see something concrete when we come back from summer recess. Despite the holidays of the institutions, the violators of the rule of law will not rest. This is why autumn is the latest opportunity to concretely initiate the process of rule of law conditionality regulation by sending written notifications to Member States concerned. There is no need to wait for the European Court of Justice ruling, and there is nothing that binds us to that. To facilitate the process, we as the Parliament have drafted these guidelines for the application of the regulation for the Commission’s use. This is our contribution. The European Council demanded these guidelines. We did not consider them necessary to begin with, yet here we are, once again, delivering faster than the Council in delivering our part. If the Commission wishes, it can use these guidelines as such and start implementing the regulation right away. Now the final obstacle, and this is the political one of course, we all know Voldemort, can be considered to be out of the way. It’s cleared. We have the guidelines. There can be no more delay, no more excuses. Dear Commissioner, we need to work as allies. Fixing the rule of law in the Union demands a lot of hard work from all of us, and I know it is not always easy. We have our differences sometimes, but I believe that more than that we all value – I know you value, I know the Commission values – we all value the rule of law as our basic principle. The Parliament has been relatively patient, but we also like to think ourselves as pacesetters, helping the Commission and the Council to reach higher goals. We have met multiple times either in this room, in Brussels or via video conference. We have a common understanding; all we need, all we need is the final will to act. We need action and the time has come, we are ready.