scholarly journals Illiberalism Within: Rule of Law Backsliding in the EU

2017 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 3-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent PECH ◽  
Kim Lane SCHEPPELE
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
European Values ◽  
Legal Strategies ◽  
The Eu

AbstractHow should the European Union cope with Member States that no longer respect the basic values of the Union? This article reviews the responses of the major European Union institutions to Poland and Hungary as their governments removed checks on their power, eliminated the independence of judiciaries and failed to honour their European commitments. As the article demonstrates, the responses of EU institutions have so far been ineffective in bringing these Member States back into line with European values. We examine the various proposals that have been made to do better, concluding that there is promise in some legal strategies that are available now, but have yet to be tried.

scholarly journals The Rule of Law Framework in the European Union: Its Rationale, Origins, Role and International Ramifications

2021 ◽  
pp. 305-331
Author(s):  
Artur Nowak-Far
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Eu

AbstractAt present, the European rule of law enforcement framework under Article 7 TEU (RLF) is vulnerable to unguaranteed, discretionary influences of the Member States. This vulnerability arises from its procedural format which requires high thresholds in decision-making with the effect that this procedure is prone to be terminated by the EU Member States likely to be scrutinized under it, if only they collude. Yet, the Framework may prove effective to correct serious breaches against human rights (in the context of ineffective rule of law standards). The European Commission is bound to pursue the RLF effectiveness for the sake of achieving relative uniformity of application of EU law (at large), and making the European Union a credible actor and co-creator of international legal order. The RLF is an important tool for the maintenance of relative stability of human rights and the rule of law in the EU despite natural divergence propensity resulting from the procedural autonomy of the EU Member States. By achieving this stability, the EU achieves significant political weight in international dialogue concerning human rights and the rule of law and preserves a high level of its global credibility in this context. Thus, RLF increases the EU’s effectiveness in promoting the European model of their identification and enforcement.

CONDITIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON WORK AND OTHER CERTAIN LEGAL SOCIAL, TECHNOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

2021 ◽  
Vol specjalny (XXI) ◽  
pp. 113-127
Author(s):  
Andrzej Świątkowski
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
European Union ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Usa ◽  
European Values ◽  
Electronic Technologies ◽  
The Eu

The European Union is in the initial phase of managing the conditions for the growth of artificial intelligence. Assuming that the above-mentioned electronic technology of the future should be trustworthy, guarantee the safety of its users and develop under human leadership, the Union should be able to convince the Member States of the necessary need for all interested parties to apply modern electronic technologies in practice while respecting European values, principles and human rights. The above common goal, extremely important for the future of European societies, and a uniform unified strategy for achieving it, binds the EU Member States. The above statement applies to all EU Member States, including those with above-average ambitions to become European leaders in the use of artificial intelligence for economic and social development. Considering that the European Union is competing with the USA and China, it is justified to ask whether the strategy of the development and use of artificial intelligence intended by the European Union will enable the achievement of the above goal?

Nationales Verfassungsrecht in der Europäischen Union

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Dieter Classen
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Head Of State ◽  
State Functions ◽  
The Eu

The book presents the constitutional systems of the 27 EU member states in an integrated form. Basic principles such as democracy and the rule of law, constitutionalismincluding constitutional jurisdiction, state organs (parliament, government, head of state) and state functions (legislation, administration, jurisdiction, foreign policy) are dealt with. Thus, common European basic principles are elaborated, but above all, the different manifestations of many constitutional principles are clarified. The book is aimed at all those who wish to inform themselves in a clear form about the constitutional systems of the EU member states on which the European Union is based.

scholarly journals Tiesiskuma nodrošināšanas instrumenti Eiropas Savienības rīcībā – līdzšinējie un jaunais papildinājums

2021 ◽  
pp. 72-80
Author(s):  
Irēna Kucina ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
Supreme Courts ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
Legal Space ◽  
Fundamental Values ◽  
The Eu

Rule of law is one of the fundamental values of the European Union. Over time, Court of Justice of the European Union, national constitutional and supreme courts and legal science, which form the common European legal space, have come to a more sophisticated and refined understanding of this notion – a concept, which more or less represents a shared understanding of what the rule of law means among all Member States. European Union cannot allow any of its Member States to deviate from this principle. It must have efficient tools for preventing such acts. The purpose of the Regulation 2020/2092 of the European parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget (the Regulation) is to give European Union a more efficient tool for ensuring Member States compliance with the rule of law. In addition to the existing legal instruments, it provides an entirely unique mechanism, which links the EU budget to the respect for the rule of law. This article analyses the already existing mechanisms for the enforcement of rule of law and then takes an in-depth look at the new mechanism established by the Regulation. It can be concluded that the Regulation represents a compromise, which is not perfect, but still workable. Although the process established by the Regulation is political, and there are certain risks to rule of law, guidelines adopted by the Council will precisely formulate the specific mandate of both political bodies (the European Commission and the Council of the EU) and align it with the legal purpose of the procedure. It will also enable Court of Justice to decide on specific cases, albeit post factum. Therefore, this Regulation should be considered as a step forward towards more efficient enforcement of rule of law in the European Union.

scholarly journals EU Values Are Law, after All: Enforcing EU Values through Systemic Infringement Actions by the European Commission and the Member States of the European Union

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Lane Scheppele ◽  
Dimitry Vladimirovich Kochenov ◽  
Barbara Grabowska-Moroz
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
The Eu

Abstract Although compliance with the founding values is presumed in its law, the Union is now confronted with persistent disregard of these values in two Member States. If it ceases to be a union of Rule-of-Law-abiding democracies, the European Union (EU) is unthinkable. Purely political mechanisms to safeguard the Rule of Law, such as those in Article 7 Treaty of European Union (TEU), do not work. Worse still, their existence has disguised the fact that the violations of the values of Article 2 TEU are also violations of EU law. The legal mechanisms tried thus far, however, do not work either. The fundamental jurisprudence on judicial independence and irremovability under Article 19(1) TEU is a good start, but it has been unable to change the situation on the ground. Despite ten years of EU attempts at reining in Rule of Law violations and even as backsliding Member States have lost cases at the Court of Justice, illiberal regimes inside the EU have become more consolidated: the EU has been losing through winning. More creative work is needed to find ways to enforce the values of Article 2 TEU more effectively. Taking this insight, we propose to turn the EU into a militant democracy, able to defend its basic principles, by using the traditional tools for the enforcement of EU law in a novel manner. We demonstrate how the familiar infringement actions—both under Article 258 and 259 TFEU—can be adapted as instruments for enforcing EU values by bundling a set of specific violations into a single general infringement action to show how a pattern of unlawful activity rises to the level of being a systemic violation. A systemic violation, because of its general and pervasive nature, in itself threatens basic values above and beyond violations of individual provisions of the acquis. Certified by the Court of Justice, a systemic violation of EU law should call for systemic compliance that would require the Member State to undo the effects of its attacks on the values of Article 2. The use of Article 260 Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) to deduct fines from EU funds due to be received by the troubled Member State would provide additional incentives for systemic compliance. We illustrate this proposed militant democratic structure by explaining and critiquing what the Commission and Court together have done to reign in the governments of Hungary and Poland so far and then showing how they can do better.

scholarly journals The Values of the EU and their Protection in the European Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 100 (7) ◽  
pp. 37-45
Author(s):  
Stanislav Kuvaldin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
European Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Institutions ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Eu

Article 7 of the Treaty on the European Union envisages a mechanism for responding to breaching by Member States the values of democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights proclaimed by the Union, as well as the introduction of sanctions. Nevertheless, the EU structures are extremely cautious about this mechanism, despite the reasons for its application. The article analyzes the history of this clause in European legislation and the first attempts to influence dubious decisions of the Member States. The author explores the cases of Poland and Hungary in light of discussions to initiate the Article 7 procedures against these countries. It is concluded that such an outcome is unlikely. It is highlighted that the clause was deliberately formulated so that it allows to limit the actions of European institutions, to leave decisions in the hands of national governments and to provide an opportunity to settle the disput through negotiations. The author explores the internal discussions of alternative ways to influence values-violating Member States.

scholarly journals The EU Concept of the Rule of Law and the Procedures de lege lata and de lege ferenda for its Protection

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-130
Author(s):  
Naděžda Šišková
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
European Values ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Eu

Summary The article is dealing with the EU current and future intruments for the protection of the rule of law principles at the level of the European Union. The beginning is dedicated to the EU concept of the rule of law as an integral part of the Common European values and its significant for the smooth functioning of the area of freedom, security and justice. The substantial part of the study is focusing of the analysis of different procedures (infringement, political and administrative), which can be used for the protection of the rule of law principles, including highlighting their certain peculiarities and the limits. The end of the article contains the conclusions about future prospects.

scholarly journals “WOULD MONEY MAKE A DIFFERENCE?”: HOW EFFECTIVE CAN THE RULE-OF-LAW-BASED PROTECTION OF FINANCIAL INTERESTS IN THE EU STRUCTURAL AND ENLARGEMENT POLICY BE?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar-Andrija Pejović
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
The Other ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
The Eu

In recent years, the rule of law and, especially, its “proper” implementation has become one of the most debated topics in Europe in recent years. The “Big Bang Enlargement” marked the beginning of dilemmas whether the new EU Member States fulfil the necessary rule of law criteria and opened the way for divergent views on how to implement TEU Article 2 values in practice. Furthermore, constant problems and difficulty of the candidate countries to fulfil the necessary rule of law criteria added to the complexity of the problem. In turn, the European institutions have tried to introduce a series of mechanisms and procedures to improve the oversight and make the states follow the rules - starting from the famous Treaty on the European Union (TEU) Article 7, the Rule of Law Mechanism, annual reports on the rule of law and the most recent Conditionality Regulation. The Conditionality Regulation was finally adopted in December 2020 after much discussion and opposition from certain EU Member States. It calls for the suspension of payments, commitments and disbursement of instalments, and a reduction of funding in the cases of general deficiencies with the rule of law. On the other hand, similar provisions were laid out in the February 2020 enlargement negotiation methodology specifying that in the cases of no progress, imbalance of the overall negotiations or regression, the scope and intensity of pre-accession assistance can be adjusted downward thus descaling financial assistance to candidate countries. The similarities between the two mechanisms, one for the Member States, the other for candidate countries shows an increased sharing of experiences and approaches to dealing with possible deficiencies or breaches of the rule of law through economic sanctioning, in order to resolve challenges to the unity of the European union. The Covid-19 pandemic and the crisis it has provoked on many fronts has turned the attention of the Member States (i.e. the Council) away from the long running problematic issues. Consequently, the procedures against Poland and Hungary based on the Rule of Law Mechanism have slowed down or become fully stalled, while certain measures taken up by some European states have created concerns about the limitations of human rights and liberties. This paper, therefore, analyses the efforts the EU is making in protecting the rule of law in its Member States and the candidate countries. It also analyses the new focus of the EU in the financial area where it has started to develop novel mechanisms that would affect one of the most influential EU tools – the funding of member and candidate countries through its structural and enlargement policy. Finally, it attempts to determine and provide conclusions on the efficiency of new instruments with better regulated criteria and timing of activities will be and how much they would affect the EU and its current and future member states.

A Hard Law Approach to States Systemic Violations of Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union

2020 ◽  
pp. 363-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Poiares Maduro ◽  
Benedita Menezes Queiroz
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
National Level ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
The Eu

The rule of law is under threat in the European Union. Systemic violations of fundamental rights are affecting the rule of law, democracy, and judicial independence in some Member States and consequently the EU legal order. The level of interdependence between the Member States and the EU legal order is such that systemic violations of those principles in the Member States end up impacting on EU compliance with the same principles. Article 7 TEU did not prove, however, to be the most effective tool to face these problems due to its political nature. The EU’s intervention in the form of infringement actions to safeguard the rule of law at the national level may be a suitable action to address some these serious violations of fundamental rights. Despite of the earlier hesitation to take a bolder action in this regard, the EU Commission, after the Court of Justice’s recent decisions in Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portuguese and LM, brought infringement proceedings against Poland challenging this country reforms that put into question the independence of its judiciary. The Court established its power of judicial review over the rule of law in the Member States in C-619/18 Commission v Poland. Ultimately, this decision highlighted the role of EU law in safeguarding the rule of law in its Member States, but more importantly in safeguarding the rule of law in the EU legal order as a whole.

scholarly journals European Normative Power During Ukrainian-Russian Conflict

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Viljar Veebel ◽  
Raul Markus
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Rule Of Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Normative Power ◽  
Normative Power Europe ◽  
European Values ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Eu

Abstract During last two decades the European Union as “normative power Europe” has been associated with the export of certain universal norms, rules and practices to the other countries. Rule of law, democracy, strong commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms, and social justice — these principles form the core of the identity of the European Union. Relying on shared political, economic and cultural ties among member states, the EU has sought to promote these norms also in the neighbouring countries, including Russia. However, the outbreak of the violent conflict between Russia and Ukraine at the end of 2013 clearly demonstrates that the EU has failed in its efforts in Russia despite extensive mutual relations and comprehensive financial support provided by the EU. The aim of the current article is to analyse how consistent the EU has been in defending and promoting European values and norms in the international arena and with Russia during the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.

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