In 2024, the Rule of Law Clinic at the CEU Democracy Institute (Budapest) published the first edition of the missing rule of law chapter: an independently produced report assessing the EU’s own adherence to EU rule of law standards. Such reporting recognizes that without a meaningful self-assessment of its own compliance with rule of law, the EU weakens its credibility, particularly when addressing systemic non-compliance with EU law by Member States.
The second edition of the report, Rule of Law beyond the EU Member States: Assessing the Union’s Performance 2025, offers a synthetic assessment of the EU’s performance across several fields: justice system; anti-corruption measures; media freedom; the internal market; and institutional checks and balances.
While progress has been made in several areas, such as the EU’s accession to the European Convention on Human Rights, significant challenges and arguable violations of EU rule of law requirements may be identified in relation to effective access to the CJEU, migration management, the (non)use of the EU’s rule of law toolbox as well as EU institutions’ own compliance with EU rule of law obligations.
The report highlights that the application of the principle of effective judicial protection by the Court of Justice in relation to EU measures gives the impression of double standards; there is increasing evidence of political considerations interfering with legal and technical rule of law assessments resulting in non-enforcement; the anti-corruption framework in the EU remains underdeveloped; geopolitical pressures are challenging effective enforcement of EU legislation in the area of EU digital policy within the Internal Market; and in the area of external migration, significant concerns about accountability and human rights protections are evident.
Dr Barbara Grabowska-Moroz, Rule of Law Clinic Director, said: ‘By addressing these deficiencies, the EU can become a stronger rule of law actor capable of implementing its policies based on the EU fundamental values’.
The founder of the CEU Rule of Law Clinic, Professor Dimitry Kochenov said: ‘Applying rule of law standards strictly to the supranational level is the vital tool of making sure that the EU does not emerge as an actor of injustice in the Union of integration through law. Our Clinic’s effort to bridge the gap in EU rule of law assessment left by the Commission is an important step to reinforce the Union by making it more accountable’
Academic Co-Director of the CEU Rule of Law Clinic, Professor Laurent Pech said: ‘It has become crucial to close the increasing gap between the EU’s uncompromising rule of law rhetoric and EU’s (in)action by addressing the serious rule of law issues and deficiencies identified in this report. Not doing so not is bound to raise the question of the EU’s own compliance with its Treaty obligations, but also undermine its authority, credibility and legitimacy in the long term. It is therefore essential to hold the EU itself to account and ensure that its values are not empty slogans.’
