The report also points out that the coronavirus pandemic has served as a “stress test” of the rule of law’s resilience across the 27. According to the commission, some of the extraordinary anti-epidemic measures taken by national governments have gone too far.
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“When extraordinary powers weaken the institutional control of decision-makers, the oversight of public decisions by the media and civil society becomes all the more important,” the report said. “However, in some Member States, the media and civil society face new obstacles,” Reuters was quoted as saying.
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Another important area of concern for the European Commission is the undermining of the independence of the judiciary. The Commission criticizes Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia in particular.
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“Polish judicial reforms after 2015 are a major source of controversy,” the Commission said. According to her, Hungary is also among the Member States in which the direction of change has raised serious concerns about the impact of the reforms on the independence of the judiciary.
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