The European Commission’s 2026 Rule of Law Report, published in Brussels on 17 July, delivers an unusually sharp rebuke to Italy, warning that **recent security decrees risk undermining fundamental rights—including the right to protest and safeguards for migrants.** The report singles out two emergency packages adopted in 2025 and 2026 that introduced preventive detention of up to 12 hours, harsher penalties for blocking roads, and simplified expulsions of irregular migrants. Commission analysts say the measures could have a chilling effect on civil-society organisations that assist asylum-seekers and could deter whistle-blowers inside reception centres. They also criticise Italy’s failure to create a fully-fledged National Human Rights Institution and to adopt a modern conflict-of-interest law. While the document is not legally binding, it feeds into the **conditionality mechanism that links EU funds to respect for the rule of law**. With Italy still awaiting the final tranche of its €191 billion Recovery Plan, the political risk for multinational employers is real: any suspension of funds could delay infrastructure projects and dampen inward assignments. The business-mobility angle lies in compliance: companies operating in Italy must now review employee-protest policies, reassess the exposure of posted workers who participate in demonstrations, and watch for stricter police checks at work sites deemed ‘critical infrastructure’. The government in Rome dismissed the criticism as “ideological”, but the Senate’s Constitutional Affairs Committee has already scheduled hearings to amend the most controversial immigration articles after the summer recess. If it fails to satisfy Brussels by December, the Commission could open infringement proceedings similar to those Italy faced in 2020 over NGO sea-rescue fines.
Source: EUNews
