On stopping abuse of office and short statute of limitations, the EU scolds the government

On stopping abuse of office and short statute of limitations, the EU scolds the government

The elimination of abuse of office and the reduction of statute of limitations jeopardize the fight against corruption while the reform on defamation endangers freedom of the press. The European Union has been more than one scolding for the reforms implemented by Giorgia Meloni’s government.

In its annual report on the rule of law in Europe, the EU executive repeatedly pointed the finger at our country, which received a total of 6 recommendations. The report should have been presented last month, but President Ursula von der Leyen preferred to postpone its publication until after the European elections, according to some rumors precisely because it contained several criticisms against Meloni, who at the time the German popular was courting in view of her battle to obtain a second mandate.

“For Meloni’s vote, von der Leyen turns a blind eye to freedom of the press in Italy”

The reform of justice

In its fifth annual report in which the Community executive gives grades to the Member States on the maintenance of the rule of law, with regard to Italy (read the report here) Brussels first of all underlines that the “new law that abolishes the crime of abuse of office and limits the scope of the crime of influence peddling could have implications for the detection and investigation of fraud and corruption”.

The Community executive recalls that “the criminalisation of abuse of office and influence peddling is part of the international conventions on corruption and is therefore an essential tool for law enforcement and prosecution in the fight against corruption”.

The prescription

Furthermore, the report continues, “the proposed changes to the statute of limitations could reduce the time available to conduct prosecutions for criminal offences, including corruption cases”. The Commission highlights that judicial authorities themselves “have expressed concern” that the proposed reform “would impose a large administrative burden to recalculate the statute of limitations applicable to all pending cases, with a possible negative effect on the length of court proceedings and the elimination of the backlog” and this development “could affect the effectiveness of the prosecution and adjudication of criminal offences”.

Freedom of the press

Regarding media freedom and the defamation reform, the EU asks our country to avoid “any risk of negative impact on press freedom” and to ensure “that it takes into account European standards on the protection of journalists”. The Commission makes explicit reference to the Nordio reform and the Costa amendment, which introduces the ban on publishing “in full or in extract” the text of the pre-trial detention order until the start of the trial.

Several stakeholders, Brussels points out, “considered that these measures constituted a restriction of press freedom, as they would affect judicial reporting and the right of citizens to be informed”, and there are “concerns in relation to the measures envisaged by the Costa amendment”, with journalists “risking being more exposed to possible legal actions for defamation in the event of incorrect summaries or reformulations of pre-trial detention orders”.

“Italy as illiberal democracies”

“Giorgia Meloni’s Italy is increasingly similar to illiberal democracies. This is what this report tells us. Justice, the premiership, freedom of information, frivolous lawsuits, are in various ways components of a state of law and when powers and counter-powers of a democracy are called into question, the state of law itself is called into question”, Sandro Ruotolo, elected with the PD to the European Parliament, where he will sit on the Culture Commission, tells uisjournal.com. For Ruotolo “there are no more extenuating circumstances”, and “the attack on the independence of the judiciary, the gag laws and the occupation of the RAI by Meloni’s party are the tangible sign of the democratic emergency of our country”.

Mattarella and freedom of information

On press freedom, Ruotolo thanked the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella for his words. “Thank goodness we have him,” he said. The head of state, during the traditional Fan ceremony at the Quirinale with journalists, said that “acts against information are subversive,” and recalled that the new Regulation on media freedom was recently approved in Europe, which aims to promote “pluralism and independence of the media throughout the EU, with protection of journalists and their sources from political interference,” and calls for “publicity on state funds allocated to media or platforms,” ​​as well as “editorial independence of public media.”