Legal consequences of a denouncement by a Member State of an international agreement signed by the European Union
16.4.2021
Question for written answer E-002075/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Łukasz Kohut (S&D), Evelyn Regner (S&D), Alessandra Moretti (S&D), Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D), Robert Biedroń (S&D), Olivier Chastel (Renew), Milan Brglez (S&D), Carles Puigdemont i Casamajó (NI), Clara Ponsatí Obiols (NI), Antoni Comín i Oliveres (NI), Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska (PPE), Pina Picierno (S&D), Ibán García Del Blanco (S&D), Irène Tolleret (Renew), Radka Maxová (S&D), Izaskun Bilbao Barandica (Renew), Petra Kammerevert (S&D), Frédérique Ries (Renew), Sylwia Spurek (Verts/ALE), Birgit Sippel (S&D), Andrzej Halicki (PPE), Terry Reintke (Verts/ALE), Evin Incir (S&D), Andreas Schieder (S&D), Hilde Vautmans (Renew), Sylvie Guillaume (S&D), Eric Andrieu (S&D), Maria Walsh (PPE), Aurore Lalucq (S&D), Magdalena Adamowicz (PPE), Cyrus Engerer (S&D), Alice Kuhnke (Verts/ALE), Rosa D'Amato (Verts/ALE), Samira Rafaela (Renew), Maria Noichl (S&D), Fabienne Keller (Renew)
On 11 May 2017, the Council of the European Union – and therefore EU Member States – adopted two decisions covering asylum policy, the non-refoulement principle and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (Council Decision (EU) 2017/865 and Council Decision (EU) 2017/866), which laid the groundwork for the EU’s signing of the Istanbul Convention of 13 June 2017.
Poland ratified the convention in 2015. Currently the Polish Parliament is discussing a legislative initiative ‘Yes to family, no to gender’, which anticipates Poland’s withdrawal from the convention.
- 1.What is the Commission’s assessment of the legal consequences for the EU acquis, specifically in relation to Council Decisions 2017/865 and 2017/866, in the event that Poland, or any other Member State, denounces the Istanbul Convention?
- 2.Is the Commission of the opinion that an international agreement the European Union has signed remains binding to the Member States which had signed it as well given that Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of International Treaties states that ‘a State is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty when: (a) It has signed the treaty [...]’?