Brussels – A month has now passed since the National Federation of the Italian Press and several international journalists’ unions asked the European Commission to launch an investigation into attacks on the press by Giorgia Meloni’s government. The date on the calendar for a first evaluation was July 3, the day scheduled for the possible publication of the annual report on the rule of law in member countries. But in Brussels they don’t seem to be in a hurry. The adoption of the report could be postponed later and arrive only once the games for the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen as head of the European Commission are over.
In the latest indicative list of items on the agenda for the next meetings of the College of Commissioners – published on 11 June -, the rule of law report is still expected on July 3rd. But today (17 June), the Commission’s chief spokesperson, Eric Mamer, left room for possible delays. “It is the heads of cabinet, in their weekly meeting, who establish the agenda (of the college of commissioners, ed) based on whether the work is sufficiently advanced or not,” he explained during his daily press briefing.
The heads of cabinet meeting will be held tomorrow (18 June). There the heads of the various departments will decide how to plan the commissioners’ next work and where to insert the Report on the rule of law. “We will see when the College is able to adopt it“, Mamer declared again. Since it was launched in 2020, the rule of law report has always been adopted in the first half of July. Except for the first year, when it wasn’t ready until September.
What triggered the controversy over an apparently harmless postponement is not only the fact that in this way the European Commission would demonstrate that he does not consider it urgent to analyze the media situation in Italy, as requested instead by the category of Italian journalists themselves and by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), by the International European Movement (EMI), by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), by the Institute for Media Diversity (MDI Global) and from OBC Transeuropa. But it would be even more serious postpone the evaluation if it were for von der Leyen’s mere political gainone step away from re-election at the helm of the European Commission.
According to what was reported by the Politico newspaper, the report will inevitably highlight the worrying crackdown on media freedom in Italy since Meloni has sat in Palazzo Chigi. And some sources within the Commission would have revealed to Politico that the president’s cabinet reportedly explicitly asked to postpone the publication of the report, because it could hinder von der Leyen’s bid for re-election. “There is visibly a desire to curb issues relating to Italy and the rule of law,” is the quote from an official reported by the newspaper.
The reason is easy to say, and is to be found in von der Leyen’s attempts to secure Meloni’s approval and the support of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) MEPs – of which the Italian Prime Minister is president – necessary to be confirmed as Berlaymont palace. “Von der Leyen politicized the rule of law report and uses law enforcement as a commodity, to be abandoned in exchange for jobs”, the liberal MEP immediately attacked her, Sophie in ‘t Veld.
Pressed by the international press, the spokesperson of the European Commission finally responded angrily: “We don’t care what people on the outside say on every single topic that concerns our work, we wanted the quality of the report to be impeccable and therefore it will be presented when we deem it suitable for adoption”.
