EU‘s Rule of Law Report may lead to EU fund freeze

The European Commission published its regular Rule of Law Report. It highlighted progress Slovakia has made in some areas of the judiciary but criticized persistent shortcomings in the fight against corruption, transparency of the legislative process, protection of journalists, and independence of public-service media. The ability to detect and prosecute cases of high-level corruption has deteriorated further.

The government "fundamentally rejects" the conclusions about insufficient prosecution of high-level corruption. It is not yet known whether the EC will use this report to freeze EU funds for Slovakia, as the European Parliament has already requested twice.

(sme.sk, hnonline.sk)