The Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF) attended a session of the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in Brussels on 4 November 2026.
At the session, which was attended by Deniz Servantie from ABTTF’s Brussels Office, the EP’s draft report and resolution on the European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report were discussed.
Chaired by LIBE Committee Chair Javier Zarzalejos (EPP, Spain), the session saw rapporteur Michał Wawrykiewicz (EPP, Poland) present the draft report and resolution, which are due to be voted on by the EP Plenary in the coming months.
Wawrykiewicz emphasised that monitoring the rule of law across the EU and in the Member States, noting progress in this area, and tracking whether Member States are complying with the European Commission’s recommendations is one of the EU’s key priorities. Noting that the European Commission’s report is based on four key pillars – the justice system, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and freedom, and institutional checks and balances and oversight mechanisms – Wawrykiewicz noted that, as the EP has consistently emphasised, additional sections are also required, and that the draft report and resolution address the issue of Member States’ failure to execute judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
Wawrykiewicz noted that a change is needed in the European Commission’s method of assessing its recommendations to Member States, stating that they recommend common categories such as ‘‘fully implemented’’, ‘‘partially implemented’’ and ‘‘not implemented’’, and that the European Commission’s assessments must clearly reflect these distinctions.
Following Wawrykiewicz’s presentation, MEPs from the LIBE Committee took the floor to express their views and proposals regarding the draft report and resolution.
ABTTF submitted a written contribution to the country report on Greece as part of the stakeholder consultations conducted during the preparation of the European Commission’s report on the rule of law, published in July 2026, highlighting that Greece had failed to execute the European Court of Human Rights’ judgments against it concerning the associations of the Turkish Minority in Western Thrace in the Bekir-Ousta and Others group of cases for 18 years.
