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Corruption, judicial bias and threats to media freedom — plenty of it exists across the EU, despite the institutions in Brussels making their absence a prerequisite for joining the bloc.
Not only are they present, but the EU Commission’s attempts to uphold the rule of law are “ineffective” and repetitive, says the Civil Liberties Union of Europe (Liberties) in a report published on Monday (30 March).
Their report, which extends to more than 840 pages, points to “deliberate erosion of the rule of law” in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia.
It adds that even historically-strong democracies, such as Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and Sweden, are experiencing “regression”.
Indeed, Liberties identifies what it describes as ‘dismantlers’ (governments that consistently and intentionally weaken the rule of law) and ‘sliders’, where democratic standards decline in certain areas without being part of a clear political strategy.
Leaving aside the slightly clumsy phraseology, a growing group of EU states are clamping down on basic rights such as peaceful protest.
Some of the countries named won’t come as a surprise to Brussels-watchers. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary “remains in a category of its own, continuing to pursue ever more regressive laws and policies without any sign of change,” according to Liberties — criticism that will probably be received as a badge of honour by the Fidesz government.
Italy’s status as a major offender is new, however.
But the real value of the report should be in encouraging the EU to take its own commitments to the rule of law seriously.
In the past, the commission has placed great importance on its annual Rule of Law report and in launching infringement proceedings against Hungary and Poland under the so-called Article 7 process.
However, even the commission seems to have lost interest.
Liberties finds that 93 percent of the recommendations issued by the commission in 2025 were simply copied and pasted from the previous year’s report.
Overall, the number of new recommendations was cut in half compared to 2024. Out of 100 recommendations assessed by Liberties, 61 show no progress and a further 13 are backsliding.
The governments who have been named-and-shamed may retort that the civil society groups on whose evidence this report is based have, themselves, received funding from the EU.
That is true for many of them, but it doesn’t invalidate the research.
In truth, the EU — as with its Stability and Growth Pact, which governs debts and deficits — has been very reluctant to impose sanctions for rule of law breaches.
Billions of euros from the Covid-19 recovery fund were withheld from Hungary, but the Article 7 procedures have simply run into government vetoes and been quietly abandoned.
But the perception is that the EU does not hold member states to the rules that they signed up to, putting the bloc in contempt.