The Strategies and Mechanisms Used by National Authorities to Systematically Undermine the Rule of Law and Possible EU Responses

The EU has been facing the Rule of Law crisis for almost a decade now. Undermining the separation of powers directly affects the Rule of Law in a given state, but at the same time it affects the EU integration as well, since the Rule of Law is one of its fundamental values. The paper builds on previous RECONNECT research, such as that on the meaning of the Rule of Law (e.g. Deliverable 7.1 ‘Unity and Diversity in National Understandings of the Rule of Law in the EU’ and Deliverable 7.2 ‘Meaning and Scope of the EU Rule of Law’), the analyses carried out in the RECONNECT working paper on ‘Global Democracy & Rule of Law Conditions and Trajectories’ (Deliverable 3.1) and the RECONNECT Policy Brief on Strengthening the Rule of Law from Within the EU.The paper in Chapter 1 starts with the overview of worldwide trends regarding the Rule of Law situation based on various indices. In Chapter 2 the mechanisms and processes are outlined whereby populist politicians with authoritarian leanings build ‘elected autocracies’. Claims and arguments used by would-be autocrats are also listed, which justify dismantlement of checks and balances. This part serves as a basis and prepares the ground for the analysis in the rest of this paper. In Chapter 3, the key Rule of Law areas that had been damaged are analysed. It provides a comparative outlook of the health of the Rule of Law in Hungary and Poland, the two countries undergoing Article 7(1) TEU proceedings. Chapter 4 offers a so-called ‘false positive’ by discussing the case of Catalan independentism and demands that the EU intervenes. In the final voluminous Chapter 5 existing and proposed EU tools are discussed to enforce the Rule of Law in the Member States and to fight the backsliding)