Council of Europe, Nov. 17, 2020
Main results
Rule of law dialogue
Ministers held for the first time a debate as part of the annual rule of law dialogue, focusing on the situation in 5 specific Member States. Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark and Estonia were the first countries in which key developments were examined [protocol order].
One of the elements of the discussion was the European Commission's first annual report on rule of law, issued last September, which covered four topics: justice systems; the anti-corruption framework; media pluralism; other institutional issues linked to checks and balances.(...)
Enlargement
The German presidency informed ministers about the state of play of the discussions on the general EU position and the procedures for accession negotiations in relation to the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Albania. A negotiating framework is required in order to formally open accession talks with a candidate country. The presidency’s aim is to have the negotiating frameworks and the internal arrangements approved in time to be able to hold the first intergovernmental conferences with the two candidate countries in 2020, if conditions are met, this being the step that officially launches the procedure.(...)
Next multiannual financial framework and the recovery package
Ministers took stock of the developments regarding the next multiannual financial framework (MFF) and the recovery package.
On 5 November, the presidency and the European Parliament's negotiators reached a provisional agreement on a new general regime of conditionality to protect the Union budget. The trilateral contacts with the European Parliament and the Commission aimed at securing the Parliament's consent to the MFF regulation were concluded on 10 November. This allowed for the full package to be submitted to the member states for endorsement. (...)
In full:
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