TEPSA is happy to present its new policy brief “Targeted Incremental Economic Responses to Democratic Backsliding in the EU ”, written by Tom Theuns, an Associate Researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po Paris and Assistant Professor of Political Theory and European Politics at the Institute of Political Science, Leiden University.

Abstract:
Some EU member states are becoming less democratic. The procedure in Article 7 TEU is widely criticised for being ineffective to respond to this development. This brief argues that Article 7 is not only ineffective but also normatively incoherent. Furthermore, by continuing to fund backsliding member states, the EU itself becomes complicit. For these reasons, the EU must develop targeted and incremental economic responses.