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The European Commission's 2024 Annual Rule of Law Report provides some analysis of Italy’s current political and judicial landscape under Meloni’s right wing rule. While the expectations towards the Report were low, the document must be read as a wakeup call, as Italy sets out to be the new Hungary.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2024 8(3), 1143-1154 | European Forum Insight of 16 January 2024 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. The advent of Putinism in Europe: illiberalism in Hungary and Poland. - III. Diverging approaches to the invasion of Ukraine. - IV. Challenges and opportunities: discovering the EU’s militant democracy potential?. - V. Conclusion. | (Abstract) In the past decade, Hungary and Poland have experienced a process of rule of law backsliding that threatens the state of democracy at home, and affects the decision making and legitimacy of the European Union as a whole. In the face of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the response of Hungary and Poland has been diametrically opposed, but equally damaging to the EU rule of law. The present Insight will analyse the response of these two member states to the Russian invasion, and it will argue that the war has highlighted major pitfalls in the EU’s policy toward backsliding governments, which continue to benefit from funds and veto powers, undermining the EU’s effectiveness in the process. However, a renewed fight for democracy in Europe could offer the perfect opportunity to be tough on autocrats inside and outside the Union.

With the view of potentially revising how the EU Council’s Annual Rule of Law, the Spanish Presidency of the Council had sent out a “questionnaire for the Member States on the evaluation of the Council’s annual rule of law dialogue. The provided answers will inform conclusions to be adopted following the General Affairs Council scheduled for 12 December 2023. Following the disclosure of the MS’ answers to this questionnaire, this post will discuss the added value of this discursive and secretive tool to address systemic threats to or violations of the rule of law. I argue that the answers reveal the dialogue to be an ultimately toothless and partially incoherent exercise that relies excessively on the good faith of its participants and lacks accountability by design.

Following the General Affairs Council on 12 December 2023, the Spanish presidency issued its conclusions on the evaluation of the Annual Rule of Law Dialogue (ARoLD). The overly positive assessment that transpires from the conclusion fails to convince, due to the continued reliance on confidentiality and the lack of any tangible standards. Moreover, the improvements suggested by the Presidency fall overwhelmingly short of addressing the issues that plague this instrument, confirming it as a weak exercise in posturing with no real stakes involved.