Council of Europe’s Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law in the joint opinion on the Superior Council of Magistracy and the status of the judiciary published on 13 June 2023 and invites the political forces represented in parliament to find ways of reaching a compromise for its adoption.

15. With regard to the Superior Council of Magistracy, the Assembly notes that the joint opinionrecommends that France:

15.1. amend the first paragraph of Article 64 of the Constitution in order to clarify the primary role of the Superior Council of Magistracy as guarantor of the independence of the judiciary;

15.2. bring the Constitution into line with the consistent practice of the authorities and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and do away with the possibility for the Minister of Justice to sit on the Superior Council of Magistracy;

15.3. modify the composition of the section of the Superior Council of Magistracy with jurisdiction over judges by increasing the number of judicial members.

16. With regard to the status of members of the judiciary, the Assembly points out that the joint opinionrecommends:

16.1. assigning the Superior Council of Magistracy the power to modify appointment proposals made by the Minister of Justice;

16.2. proceeding with the legislative and constitutional reforms needed to align the appointments procedure for prosecutors and the disciplinary procedure for members of the prosecution service with the current procedure for judges;

16.3. shifting from the Minister of Justice to the Superior Council of Magistracy the power to initiate disciplinary proceedings ex officio and to request the Inspectorate General of the Justice System to carry out an investigation.

17. The Assembly is closely following the execution of the judgments of the European Court of HumanRights concerning France, in particular the series of judgments ordering it to put an end to a situation ofsystemic prison overcrowding that causes detention conditions in breach of Article 3 of the EuropeanConvention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

18. The Assembly welcomes the many measures decided by the authorities to reduce prison overcrowding,in particular the announcements concerning the building of additional prison capacity, the efforts to improvethe distribution of inmates between prisons and the efforts to raise judges’ and prosecutors’ awareness ofpossible alternatives to imprisonment. Nevertheless, it notes that the relevant national and internationalauthorities believe that the programme to build new prison places will not provide a lasting solution within areasonable timeframe, while the prison population statistics show that the situation is steadily worsening. TheAssembly therefore refers to the decision adopted on 6 December 2022 by the Committee of Ministers of theCouncil of Europe, which, in view of the consistent recommendations of several competent nationalinstitutions and the urgency of the situation, “invited again the authorities to consider rapidly new legislativemeasures that would regulate the prison population in a more binding nature”.

19. The Assembly notes with interest the conclusions of the recent parliamentary work stating that thejudicial measures to limit the use of detention have failed to reduce prison overcrowding and that it isnecessary to establish a binding mechanism for regulating the prison population, while proposing a method forimplementing this solution gradually and without disrupting the execution of sentences. The Assemblytherefore calls on the authorities to try out a binding mechanism for regulating the prison population, at leastuntil such time as the other measures to reduce the prison population have an effect and make such amechanism unnecessary.

20. Media freedom, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression are guaranteed effectively in France.Restrictions do exist, as strictly defined by law, in order to protect privacy and image rights and to preventdefamation, public insult, the condoning of terrorism, publication of fake news and hate speech. Theconditions for working as a journalist are well protected. The Assembly welcomes the planned reform of civilprocedure to improve the protection of journalists against vexatious proceedings.

21. The Assembly notes the concerns that exist because of the impact of the trend towards mediaconcentration on pluralism of information. The Assembly is pleased to note the opening of the “États générauxde l’information” national consultation process and will follow its work with great interest. The Assembly

II SÉRIE-D — NÚMERO 18 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

122