PES President Sergei Stanishev said:
“The EU is not just a market or a source of funding. First and foremost, it’s a community of values and principles. The EU is a union of democracies. The separation of powers, an independent media landscape, academic freedom, women’s and LGBTI rights are all essential to democracy and must be defended with all the legal tools at our disposal. In the last European Commission, Frans Timmermans – then First Vice-President in charge of Rule of Law – fought courageously to preserve these values. We welcome the ruling of the EU Court of Justice.”
In its ruling, the court states that “compliance with those values cannot be reduced to an obligation which a candidate State must meet in order to accede to the European Union and which it may disregard after accession”.
Stanishev added:
“Everyone knows our values, they have been written down: freedom, democracy, respect of everyone’s rights. This is the source of wellbeing and prosperity. We cannot give up on these values, for the sake of all Europeans. This is good news for all our friends, members and partners in Poland and Hungary, too, who continue to fight to restore the rule of law to their countries. We urge the European Commission to act swiftly and use all the tools at its disposal to protect the Rule of Law in the European Union.”
The PES will continue to monitor developments and push for concrete action when the situation demands it.
In 2020, social democrats in the German Presidency of the Council of the EU launched a Rule of Law Dialogue, a new instrument based on the Commission’s annual Report on the Rule of Law in all 27 Member States, in order to keep the topic regularly and high on the agenda.
