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The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) with the support of the Directorate for relations with National Parliaments will organize an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting (ICM) on “The situation of the Rule of Law in the EU”.

This in-person meeting will be held on Thursday, 12 December 2024, from 9:30 to 12:30, in the European Parliament premises in Brussels.

The interparliamentary committee meeting will be dedicated to the assessment of the fifth Commission's rule of law report with a specific emphasis on the 'Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights' (DRF) mechanism and the role that civil society organisations can play in protecting the Rule of Law. The meeting will serve as a follow up on previous such interparliamentary meetings, including the one which took place in December 2023, as well as on the Parliament's resolution of 28 February 2024 on the Commission's 2023 Rule of Law Report.

The event will take place on Tuesday, 28 January 2025 from 15.00 to 18.30 in the European Parliament in Brussels (Room Antall 6Q2), in physical presence only.

The meeting will be structured around two sessions. First panel will discuss the enforcement of EU law benefitting EU citizens followed by an exchange of views with national parliaments and MEP's. The second session will look into how to contribute in ensuring a timely and correct enforcement of EU law, also followed by a debate with Members of national Parliaments and the European Parliament.

The meeting took place on Wednesday, 4 December from 10:30 - 12:30 CET in the European Parliament in Brussels, room ANTALL 4Q1.

The European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), in cooperation with the Legislative Dialogue Unit of the Directorate for Relations with national Parliaments (DG PART), invited Members of national Parliaments of the EU Member States to attend an Interparliamentary Committee Meeting (ICM) on 'E-justice: lessons learned from national perspectives'. Together with the MEPs, they discussed the current state of play of the digitalisation of justice and the judiciary, specifically on civil and commercial matters.

The fifth Interparliamentary Committee Meeting on the "Evaluation of Eurojust's activities" took place on Monday, 2 December 2024, from 15:00 to 18:00, at the European Parliament in Brussels.

In accordance with Article 85(1) TFEU and Article 67(3) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1727 on the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), the President of Eurojust shall appear once a year for the joint evaluation of Eurojust's activities by the European Parliament and national Parliaments, within the framework of an interparliamentary committee meeting, to discuss the agency's current activities and to present its annual report or its other key documents.

The LXXII Plenary Meeting of COSAC, under the Hungarian Presidency, took place from 27 to 29 October 2024 in Budapest, Hungary. It was chaired by Mr. Zoltán Tessely, Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs of the Hungarian National Assembly and addressed topics concerning the future of the EU.

The European Parliament was represented by a six-Member Delegation led by Mr Esteban González Pons (EPP/ES), Vice-President responsible for relations with national Parliaments and COSAC, and Mr Sven Simon (EPP/DE), Chair of the AFCO Committee, and comprising Ms Romana Tomc (EPP/SL), Mr Loránt Vincze (EPP/RO), Mr Ernö Schaller-Baross (Patriots/HU), and Ms Elena Donazzan (ECR/IT).

The 15th meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) on Europol will take place on 12 November 2024 from 8.45 to18.00, at the European Parliament in Brussels, József Antall Building, room 6Q2.

The meeting will tackle a number of issues directly arising from the JPSG's prerogatives, including presentations by Ms Catherine DE BOLLE, Europol Executive Director, Mr Peter DE BUYSSCHER, the Chair of the Europol Management Board, and Mr Wojciech WIEWIÓROWSKI, the European Data Protection Supervisor.

During the meeting, exchanges of views with Europol's Data Protection Officer and Fundamental Rights Officer will also be held.

The draft agenda includes as well two scrutiny sessions, the first on "The Need to prevent security threats like the Solingen attack through addressing illegal migration" and the second on "The fight against cybercrime, in particular crimes using Artificial Intelligence; possibilities of knowledge sharing involving CEPO ". A specific agenda point id dedicated to an update on Europol activities linked to the war in Ukraine.

The JPSG will be consulted on Europol's Multiannual Programming Document 2025-2027 and the Executive Director of Europol will be asked to react to the received written comments during her intervention.

The Hungarian Presidency will organize the LXXII Plenary Meeting of COSAC from 27 to 29 of October 2024 at the Hungarian National Assembly in Budapest

The LXXII Plenary Meeting of COSAC under the Hungarian Presidency will take place from 27 to 29 October 2024 in Budapest, Hungary. It will be chaired by Mr. Zoltán Tessely, Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs of the Hungarian National Assembly and will address various topics concerning the future of the European Union's.

The European Parliament will be represented by a six-Member Delegation, with Mr Esteban González Pons (EPP/ES), Vice-President responsible for relations with national Parliaments and COSAC, and Mr Sven Simon (EPP/DE), Chair of the AFCO Committee serving as Heads of Delegation. The Delegation will further comprise Ms Romana Tomc (EPP/SL), Mr Loránt Vincze (EPP/RO), Mr Ernö Schaller-Baross (Patriots/HU), and Ms Elena Donazzan (ECR/IT).

The 25th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy took place on 9-10 September 2024 in Budapest, Hungary.

The meeting was organised by the Parliamentary Dimension of the Hungarian Presidency (https://parleu2024.parlament.hu). Members of Parliaments from EU national Parliaments, the European Parliament, observer and candidate countries as well as officials were invited.

Discussions were articulated around four main items: The future Europe and the countries wishing to join the EU; Priorities and current issues of the CFSP/CSDP; Protection of the external borders and illegal migration; Geopolitical, strategic shifts in the world and an urgent debate was held on 'The implications of indiscriminate Russian attacks on Ukrainian economy and infrastructure'.

A staff seminar for officials of national Parliaments also took place in the margins of the Inter-parliamentary Conference on the topic of 'Defence capabilities - the implementation of the European Defence Industrial Strategy'.

The Meeting of the Chairpersons of COSAC, hosted by the Hungarian National Assembly in Budapest took place on 29 July 2024 and was preceded by the meeting of the Presidential Troika of COSAC on Sunday 28 July.

Mr István Jakab, Deputy Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, addressed the COSAC Chairpersons during the opening session. He welcomed delegates to the second COSAC organised by Hungary (the first was in 2011) and stressed the importance of interparliamentary cooperation.