The European Parliament will brief journalists next week on its assessment of the Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report, with judicial independence, corruption, media freedom and the safety of journalists expected to feature prominently in the Strasbourg debate.
The European Parliament is preparing to set out its position on the state of the rule of law across the EU, ahead of a Strasbourg plenary debate and vote next week.
Parliament’s rapporteur, Konstantinos Arvanitis, will present the institution’s assessment of the Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report at a press conference scheduled for Tuesday 28 April at 15.30 CEST. The briefing will take place in the Daphne Caruana Galizia press conference room in Strasbourg, with remote participation available for accredited journalists.
The report is due to be debated in plenary on Tuesday and voted on Wednesday. According to Parliament’s notice, the text warns of limited progress on the Commission’s recommendations and highlights concerns relating to judicial independence, corruption, media freedom and pluralism, and the safety of journalists.
The timing gives the issue a clear institutional peg. The Commission’s annual Rule of Law Report has become one of the EU’s main monitoring instruments for assessing developments in member states. It examines justice systems, anti-corruption frameworks, media freedom and institutional checks and balances. Parliament’s response is politically important because it indicates where MEPs believe the Commission’s monitoring has been effective and where enforcement or follow-up remains insufficient.
The rule-of-law debate has also become closely linked to the EU budget and access to funds. In recent years, Brussels has used budgetary conditionality and recovery-fund procedures to place pressure on member states where concerns have been raised over judicial independence, public procurement, corruption risks or institutional safeguards. This has made the annual rule-of-law cycle more than a reporting exercise. It now sits within a broader policy framework involving EU funding, national reforms and legal compliance.
The Parliament’s forthcoming position is expected to focus on whether recommendations made by the Commission have led to measurable changes in member states. That distinction matters. A report may identify weaknesses, but the central issue for EU institutions is whether national governments implement corrective measures and whether there are consequences when they do not.
Media freedom and journalist safety are also likely to attract attention in Strasbourg. The Parliament notice specifically refers to media freedom and pluralism as well as the safety of journalists. These issues have become part of the EU’s rule-of-law framework because independent media are treated as part of democratic oversight and public accountability. The venue for the press conference, named after the murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, gives the subject additional institutional resonance, although the policy discussion will concern the EU as a whole.
The debate will take place against a wider background of tension between national sovereignty and EU oversight. Some governments have argued that rule-of-law scrutiny can become politically selective. The Commission and Parliament have maintained that common standards are necessary because member states share a legal order, budgetary commitments and mutual recognition arrangements in justice and internal market policy.
