At the same time, the Assembly expresses its concern about
developments and remaining shortcomings in a number of countries
under a monitoring procedure or engaged in a post-monitoring dialogue,
in particular:
9.1 Albania: the
delays in establishing a functional Constitutional Court as well
as the ongoing marked political polarisation in the country;
9.2 Armenia: the violence that erupted following the signature
of the trilateral statement between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia
on 9 November 2020, which resulted in the storming of institutional buildings
and in physical aggression against the President of the National
Assembly that left him hospitalised; the rapid changes in the composition
of the Constitutional Court without the opinion of the Venice Commission
being fully taken into account;
9.3 Azerbaijan: reports of large-scale repression of government
opponents and restrictions on freedom of expression, including internet
access, under the pretext of safety measures against the Covid-19
pandemic; other outstanding concerns including, inter alia lack of independence
of the judiciary, lack of pluralism, violations of the rule of law
and human rights, as well as restrictions put on freedoms of assembly,
association, expression and religion;
9.4 Bosnia and Herzegovina: the continuing verbal attacks
against the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, including threats by the Republika Srpska to declare self-determination;
continuous rhetoric questioning the legitimacy of some State-level
institutions established under the General Framework Agreement,
including the refusal to implement judgments issued by State-level
courts; the lack of any progress with regard to the implementation
of the Sejdić and Finci judgment; the lack of any progress with
regard to the implementation of the recommendations made by the
European Union’s group of experts in the 2019 “Priebe report”; the
lack of any improvement in the field of freedom of expression and
in the field of freedom of peaceful assembly in relation to the “Justice
for David” movement; the absence of progress in terms of transitional
justice and reconciliation;
9.5 Bulgaria: no substantial progress in the main outstanding
areas of concern including high-level corruption and media freedom;
9.6 Georgia: the shortcomings noted during the last parliamentary
elections while deeply regretting the decision of opposition parties
to boycott the newly elected parliament;
9.7 Republic of Moldova: the slow pace of the reform of the
judiciary and slow progress in the fight against corruption, in
particular insufficient progress made in the field of corruption
prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors
and, in this context, the political migration of members of parliament
which is a source of political instability, notwithstanding allegations
of political corruption;
9.8 Montenegro: the limited progress achieved in the four
key areas identified in
Resolution
2030 (2015) on the honouring of obligations and commitments
by Montenegro: the independence of the judiciary, trust in the electoral
process, the situation of the media and the fight against corruption;
the reappointment of presidents of courts for more than the two-term
limit set by the constitution and the law; the failure to revise
the electoral framework before the general elections; the lack of
progress with regard to the composition and independence of the
Judicial Council and in reviewing the disciplinary framework for
judges; the lack of substantial progress in the reform of the funding
of political parties and electoral campaigns; the lack of improvement
in the situation of journalists;
9.9 North Macedonia: the situation of the media, which remains
unchanged, in particular issues such as the financial sustainability
of independent media, self-regulation, lack of transparency of media advertising
by State institutions, political parties and public enterprises,
and the public service broadcaster’s independence;
9.10 Poland: the refusal of the Polish authorities to execute
judgments of domestic courts and of the Court of Justice of the
European Union that they do not like, contrary to their international
obligations, including to the Council of Europe;
9.11 Russian Federation: a number of outstanding concerns,
including, inter alia the
lack of pluralism, the independence of the judiciary, the restrictive
environment for activities of political extra-parliamentary opposition,
civil society, human rights activists and journalists, restrictions
on the freedoms of expression, assembly, association and religion,
as well as a number of problematic laws including the Foreign Agents
Law, the Law on Undesirable Organisations or anti-extremist legislation;
ratification of amendments to the constitution that introduce major
restrictions on the application of international law and implementation
of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights; the lack
of progress with regard to implementing the demands of the international
community with regard to eastern Ukraine, Crimea, the occupied Georgian
regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia and the Transnistrian
region of the Republic of Moldova;
9.12 Serbia: limited progress, if any, in the outstanding areas
of concern; issues raised with regard to general elections held
on 21 June 2020 including the boycott by several opposition political
parties, which resulted, despite a last-minute lowering of the electoral
threshold, in the formation of a new parliament without a viable
opposition (with the exception of some members from minority parties);
the management of the Covid-19 pandemic in times of elections, including
the lifting of restrictive lockdown measures during the election
campaign and their unexpected reintroduction after the repeat election
of 1 July, which triggered clashes with – and disproportionate use
of violence by – the police; restrictions to media freedom and attacks
against journalists, as well as financial investigations launched
against NGOs and human rights activists;
9.13 Turkey: the new crackdown on political opposition and
civil dissent, the restrictions of freedom of expression and media
freedom; the dismissal of mayors on alleged terror-related charges
and their replacement by government-appointed trustees and the adoption
of amendments to the 1969 Attorneyship Law, which undermine the
independence of the bar associations and further weaken the rule
of law;
9.14 Ukraine: the persistent shortcomings in the reforms of
the judiciary and the justice system and the still limited results
in the fight against the widespread corruption in the country; the
recurrent attacks on journalists.
