European Commission-Council of Europe consultations on the Enlargement Package

The plenary session was chaired by Allan Jones for the Commission and brought together the Council of Europe's Offices in the region as well as colleagues from the Directorate of Political Affairs and External Relations, the secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly’s monitoring committee and the Office of the Commissioner on Human Rights.

The Council of Europe counterparts shared their views of the situation in the Enlargement countries, for the first time covering also Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and the European Commission desks (2 of whom were present in Strasbourg and the rest online) were able to ask questions.

Council of Europe and European Commission colleagues largely shared the same views on the state of play in the enlargement countries, including the main positive developments over the past year and the most prominent challenges. European Commission colleagues were also able to discuss the situation in specific rule of law and fundamental rights sectors through a series of bilateral meetings with Council of Europe monitoring and expert bodies.