EU Reporter Published 3 hours ago Defending the rule of law: a matter of urgency During a meeting of Parliament’s budget and budgetary control committees on 26 May, MEPs discussed the way forward with Gert Jan Koopman, Director-General of the Commission's budget department. Koopman emphasised the sensitive nature of potential Commission assessments regarding the rule of law in EU countries: “Decisions taken will be subject to full judicial review by the [European] Court of Justice," he said. "We need to get this right from the beginning. We simply cannot afford to make mistakes and bring cases that are annulled by the Court. This will be a disaster.”