The Rule of Law project of the Meijers Committee

The Meijers Committee, an independent standing committee of legal experts that provides technical-legal commentary on EU policy documents and legislative proposals, has initiated a Rule of Law project, with the site euruleoflaw.eu. Their introduction:

The Meijers Committee is worried by the EU’s insufficient reaction to developments that affect the rule of law in the EU. It also discerns particular risks in the establishment of new EU agencies and in changes to the competences or structure of existing agencies.

On this page there is more on the project, e.g.:

In the coming years, the Meijers Committee sees particular risks in the establishment of new EU agencies and in changes to the competences or structure of existing agencies. A reason for concern is, for example, the lack of clarity in the control of the exercise of powers by these agencies and the legal position of citizens vis-à-vis these institutions. Many improvements to the legal structure of these institutions are needed to ensure their accountability and transparency.

and:

The agencies in the field of asylum and migration, but also in the field of criminal law cooperation, have been given increasing competences over the last decade. In the area of criminal justice, these include the agencies OLAF (European Anti-Fraud Office), Europol, Eurojust and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO, to become operational in 2021). In the field of asylum, there is the European Asylum Agency and the European Border and Coast Guard (formerly FRONTEX). There is a lack of clarity regarding the competences of – and the responsibility for – these agencies. It should be transparent how these institutions work, which decisions are made and how, and how supervision and control are exercised by elected representatives. Currently, this is not sufficiently the case. At several agencies there are doubts about the control and supervision by parliaments, the protection of fundamental rights and the accessibility of complaint procedures. (…)

Most agencies also have access to large-scale databases and their functioning therefore also concerns data protection.

On the Rule of Law site there are comments that concern EU Agencies in the European Union.

There is a Rule of Law Dashboard that provides information about rule of law-related judgements and pending cases at the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights. Currently Hungary, Malta, Poland, and Romania are included in the dashboard. It will be supplemented with other Member States, based on reports of the European Commission, reports by the Council of Europe and reports by NGOs such as Freedom House and Varieties of Democracy.

Hopefully they will also pay attention to the Authority for Countering Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (AMLA), that is part of the AML Package.

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About Ellen Timmer

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