Antonio Bar Cendón has been invited by the European Institute of Education for Democratic Culture (ECUDEM) and the research group “Citizenship, Cultural Diversity and Education” (CIDEC) of the Catholic University of Valencia (UCV) to give a talk on the Rule of Law in Europe.
“Threats of today’s democracy: Latin American revolutionary socialism and European post-democracy” is the name of the Dialogue Series organized by both entities, and that has been given in online format, with the support of the Erasmus + program of the European Union, which has counted with the participation of prominent speakers from the University of Valencia (UV) and the Center for Socio-Cultural Researchers of Venezuela (CISCUVE), among others.
In these dialogue series, our colleague Antonio Bar Cendón, Professor of Constitutional Law and holder of a Jean Monnet chair gave a talk on the rule of law in the EU and its protection in times of crisis.
In his speech, in which Dr. Bar’s participation in the two research projects funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) and the Generalitat Valenciana (GVA) was expressly mentioned, the professor wanted to take advantage of the debate on the issue of democratic erosion that is becoming increasingly frequent in more and more countries around the world, to talk about the European case.
Professor Bar’s presentation addressed three fundamental questions: 1) What is understood by the term “Rule of Law”, 2) What are the protection mechanisms available to the EU for its defense and, 3) The current situation of crisis and democratic decline facing Europe.
In relation to the first question, Dr. Bar recalled the importance of the values contained in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), in the sense that compliance with and acceptance by the Member States, but especially, the commitment to respect these values, is a sine qua non requirement for their membership in the European Union.
“The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the
Article 2 TEU
rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.
These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination,
tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail”
Regarding the protection mechanisms with which the EU can face systemic threats to the rule of law, the professor pointed out that two value protection mechanisms are established: on the one hand, a protection of a political nature and, on the other, a more specific jurisdictional protection of human rights and fundamental rights, which pertains to the courts of justice in accordance with the principles and rights established in the TEU and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Furthermore, on this same issue the Professor pointed out that “the sanction mechanism is established only when there is a serious and permanent violation of these values… A large part of the problem is that, in order to activate the protection mechanisms, the Council has to act unanimously, which makes this instrument inoperative inasmuch as the two States that represent the greatest threat to the rule of law in the EU, Poland and Hungary, protect each other to make it impossible to activate the sanction mechanism”.
The Professor also recalled the presentation by the European Commission in 2014, of a “framework for safeguarding the rule of law in the EU” being the very first strategic document in which the concept and content of the rule of law was defined for the first time while formulating a procedure prior to resorting to sanction mechanisms, through the elaboration of a series of annual reports in which the Commission would assess the level of compliance of the different Member States, thus formulating a series of recommendations.
Dr. Bar emphasized that there are four key areas for the Rule of Law, through which the evolution, both positive and negative, of the rule of law in EU member countries is examined: the judicial system, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and other issues related to checks and balances.
Finally, the Professor acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and the democratic decline in the EU, a situation that is, in his own words: “especially serious in the case of Hungary and Poland, and more restrained in other countries such as Spain or Italy“, and believes that: “the mechanisms available to the EU are weak for the very serious problems we have”.
