Ahead of the publication of the European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report, 37 civil society, human rights, journalism, and media organisations have called for a more robust and action-oriented approach to protecting the rule of law across the EU and candidate countries. They argue that the annual report has become a routine monitoring exercise with insufficient follow-up, despite growing democratic backsliding and restrictions on civic space. The organisations urge the Commission to strengthen links between the Report and existing rule of law enforcement tools, expand its assessment of civic space, ensure implementation of key EU legislation on media freedom and anti-SLAPP protections, and integrate rule of law conditionality into the next Multiannual Financial Framework. They also call for all candidate countries to be fully included in the Report and for recommendations to be meaningfully linked to EU pre-accession funding. Read more here.
Source: European Partnership for Democracy