Abstract:

An overview of the development of the EU’s rule of law toolbox will first be offered so as to show the extent to which this toolbox has been properly used, misused or not used ever since José Barroso, then President of the European Commission, identified a new type of “threats to the legal and democratic fabric in some of our European states” in 2012.

Three existing, interconnected and transversal trends will be drawn from this overview: (i) an infatuation with toolbox redesign so as to avoid using existing response tools; (ii) a tendency to adopt narrow if not contra legem interpretations to delay action or prevent their forceful use; (iii) an increasing politicisation and disregard for the rule of law at EU level whenever politically or geopolitically deemed necessary, coupled with gaslighting to hide the increasing gap between the EU’s uncompromising rhetoric and the reality of the EU’s (in)action in the face of systemic threats to and/or violations of the rule of law both internally and externally.

It will be submitted that these existing, interconnected and transversal trends will exacerbate as they are being reinforced by two new trends: (iv) increasing reckless disregard for the rule of law in consolidated democracies and (v) increasing lawlessness on the international plane in a broader context of rising authoritarianism worldwide. The end result will be a new phase in the history of the rule of law in the EU where inconsequential reporting, undue politicisation and gaslighting will become major features.

Short bio:

Laurent Pech is Full Professor of Law at UCD Sutherland School of Law. He is also a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Bordeaux and the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas; a Senior Visiting Researcher and academic co-director of the Rule of Law Clinic at the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest; and the co-director of The Good Lobby Profs which he co-founded in 2021.