Not many topics have stirred the pots in Brussels’ political kitchen in the last five years as much as the Rule of Law. From severe backsliding in many countries, over the adoption of the hardly negotiated conditionality regulation followed by the large-scale freezing of Covid recovery funding to endless Article 7 hearings, the scramble around issues of judicial independence, media freedom and anti-corruption, amongst others, has left bitter divides in the Union, once founded on these shared values.
As European parties gear up to renew their pledges to voters for the upcoming European Parliament elections, political manifestos and policy priorities are being unveiled. We see an uneven picture of where the rule of law features in those. Some parties treat the independence of the judiciary and fight against corruption as priorities, for some it’s an exercise in checking a mandatory box, for some – the rule of law doesn’t exist.
We analysed the manifestos of European parties to see where the programmes feature the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, protection of media freedom and fight against corruption. We’ve found that the rule of law is a crucial priority for some parties such as ALDE/Renew and the Greens. For others, like EPP and S&D, it’s an essential item but not one that’s extensively addressed. Several parties mention the rule of law in passing, as is the case with the Left. Finally, for the likes of ECR and ECMP, the rule of law barely features, and certainly not as an issue within the EU that warrants attention.
