The European Commission on Wednesday published its fourth annual report on the rule of law, mapping the state of the rule of law in each EU member state. It issued seven recommendations for Slovakia. Except for the last one, they follow up on last year's recommendations, which Slovakia has either only partially implemented or not at all.
The first of the recommendations is to ensure that members of the Judicial Council are subject to sufficient guarantees of independence as regards their removal, taking into account European standards on the independence of judicial councils. According to the EC, Slovakia has made no progress in this respect in line with its recommendations last year. The Commission also asks Slovakia to ensure that sufficient safeguards are in place and properly respected in cases where judges have to be held criminally liable for the offense of "bending the law" in relation to their judicial decisions. There has also been no progress in this area.
The Commission further recommends Slovakia to submit legislative proposals to regulate lobbying and to strengthen legislation on conflicts of interest and asset declarations. Slovakia has made partial progress in this respect since 2022.
The EU executives also ask the Slovak side to improve coordination between law enforcement authorities, where there has been no progress, and to ensure the objectivity of prosecutorial decisions where there has been partial progress. Objectivity is to be ensured by continuing to push for legislative changes to limit the power of the Prosecutor General to overrule prosecutorial decisions. The aim is to encourage the achievement of conclusive results in high-level corruption cases.
Another recommendation concerns progress in the process of establishing legislative and other safeguards to improve the physical safety and working environment of journalists, including reform of the defamation law. European standards for the protection of journalists need to be taken into account. Slovakia has made some progress in this respect.
The EC also recommends further strengthening rules and mechanisms to promote the independent management and editorial independence of public service media, taking into account European standards for the media. Some progress has also been made in this area since last year. The last and completely new recommendation of the EC is to ensure effective public consultation and stakeholder involvement in the law-making process. In addition, the Commission reminded Slovakia of the commitments it made in the National Recovery Plan.
The EC Annual Report includes 27 country chapters, focusing on important developments since July 2022. It addresses the four pillars of the rule of law - the national judiciary, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and other institutional checks and balances. It notes that 65 percent of last year's recommendations have been fully or partially implemented across the EU.
Source: TASR
