In this edition of the European Council Experts’ Debrief, our experts focus on a issue that has been an ‘elephant in the room’ in the European Union for many years. TEPSA Secretary-General Jim Cloos asked authors to respond to the question, formulated with TEPSA Executive Director Mariam Khotenashvili: “How should the EU best use its existing mechanisms for protecting the Rule of Law (including article 7 TEU; EU budget conditionality), and how should it adapt them in preparation for enlargement to EU 30+?”
Protection of the rule of law and democracy is one of the most important moral imperatives of the European project. So much so that democracy, human rights, and rule of law are enshrined in the Treaties and are part of the European Union’s DNA. Nonetheless, many observers have noted the phenomenon of democratic backsliding around the world, with examples of particular note in the EU. Despite this, the Union has struggled to maintain a hold on democratic quality in some of its Member States, and the issue has been increasingly problematic as that backsliding has continued. In a year where the EU will begin a new institutional cycle, where Orbán’s Hungary will hold the reins of the rotating presidency, and where enlargement is once again on the agenda, the prospect of how an expanding EU can best protect rule of law and democracy deserves special attention. These themes and more are tackled in this new edition of the European Council Experts’ Debrief.
In addition to the foreword by TEPSA Secretary-General Jim Cloos, expert contributors to this edition include:
- Veronica Anghel, European University Institute, Italy
- Ramona Coman, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
- Veronika Czina, Institute of World Economics, Center for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungary
- Ilaria Gambardella, FWO/KU Leuven, Belgium
- Albīne Hlopņicka & Loreta Kalve, Latvian Institute of International Affairs, Latvia
- Marts Ivaskis, Latvian Institute of International Affairs, Latvia
- Juha Jokela, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland
- Benedetta Lobina, University College Dublin, Ireland
- Luca Pantaleo, University of Cagliari, Italy & Marco Siddi, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland
- Eleonora Poli, Centre for European Policy, Italy
- András Rácz, German Council on Foreign Relations, Germany
- Jean De Ruyt, Egmont Institute, Belgium
- Eliza Vaș, European Institute of Romania, Romania
