Rule of law declining across EU, report warns
Rule of law declining across EU, report warns
Civil liberties network says in states where far-right parties influence power, rule-of-law deterioration risks becoming systemic
However, in similarly long-established – so resilient – democracies where far-right parties are in power, or influencing power, such as Italy and Sweden, Liberties said deterioration of the rule of law, while gradual, risked becoming systemic. In more recently re-established EU democracies, such as Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland, it said the rule of law “can swing rapidly - either towards recovery or decline”.Measures such as infringement proceedings or conditional freezing of EU funds could and should be deployed, he said, but Brussels was “like a bystander. They fail to realise some governments are deliberately destroying checks and balances.”
FYI check their Liberties site and this Executive summary from their 2024 report:
The Liberties Rule of Law Report 2024 is the fifth annual report on the state of the rule of law in the European Union (EU) published by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) – the most in-depth reporting exercise to date on the rule of law in the EU by acivil society network. The report, jointly drafted by Liberties and its national member and partner organisations, is a ‘shadow report’ to the European Commission’s annual audit of the rule of law, aimed at providing the Commission with reliable information and analysis from the groups to use in its annual audit, as well as offering an independent analysis of the state of the rule of law in its own right.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The rule of law is declining across the EU as governments continue to weaken legal and democratic checks and balances, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting in particular a sharp rise in restrictions on the right to protest.
Berlin-based Liberties said in its annual report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that in older democracies with mainstream parties in government, such as France, Germany and Belgium, challenges to the rule of law remained sporadic.
In France, the report said, last year’s pension changes were “enacted in a manifestly undemocratic legislative process” after the government used special constitutional powers, while journalists in Germany now faced criminal prosecution if they published judicial decisions that are not publicly accessible.
In Italy and Sweden, whose governments are respectively led and propped up by far-right parties, Liberties’ partners reported rule-of-law regression in areas including the justice system, media freedom and pluralism, civic space and human rights.
Slovakia’s Fico has said proposed overhauls, including scrapping a special prosecutor’s office dealing with high-level corruption, are necessary to end bias against his Smer-SSD party, but critics say the changes will protect his political and business allies.
Poland’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, has promised to restore EU norms to unblock tens of billions in funding held back by Brussels over charges of democratic backsliding during eight years of rule by the nationalist Law & Justice party.
The original article contains 941 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Weird they blame the far-right, if anything the rule of law was collapsing before due to widespread crime and criminals acting with impunity, as well as austerity hitting law enforcement capabilities.
"Rule of law" refers to everyone being treated the same in the eye of the law, a basic democratic principle (as opposed to e.g. the king being allowed to do whatever they want).
It's not about whether and how much the law is broken in general.
The actual report also doesn't limit itself to the far right btw, according to the article:
In France, the report said, last year’s pension changes were “enacted in a manifestly undemocratic legislative process” after the government used special constitutional powers, while journalists in Germany now faced criminal prosecution if they published judicial decisions that are not publicly accessible.
Good point about the increasing crime rates and mafiastuff ( also hitmen murdering political targets), and the downsizing of the police force.
There seem to be several interprations of civil rights. The general definition ( safety& crime etc) and the political definition. But I'm no expert.
This report is more about civil & political rights, the democratic process & the checks & balances. Like how many laws were passed without consulting the cabinet/ public etc. And there seems to be a direct relationship between far right and infringement of civil/ political rights.
One could wonder whether the downsizing of police and the increasing crime rates, has led to far right (in whatever form) insurgency. One could even wonder that, if this fact was known beforehand, how much of it is happenstance. Because it's a classic scenario right out of certain books. But that's an elaborate more difficult discussion.
Far right is authoritarian and segregation of rights is at core.