In recent years, the European Union and its member states have been occupied with a fundamental political debate on the future of democracy and the rule of law. A number of democratically elected EU governments argue that there are differing interpretations of the rule of law owing to national legal or political traditions, using this argument to dismantle democratic institutions.
Are there twenty-eight shades of rule of law within the EU, or is it simply political opportunism by new authoritarians? Is the era of European democratic rule of law over? How should the EU and its members react to democratic and rule of law deficits? Is the European Commission’s new Rule of Law strategy a step forward?
