safeguarding democracy inside the eu - Transatlantic Academy

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Executive SummaryRecent illiberal turns in Hungary andRomania have prompted the question what,if anything, the EU could and should do toprotect liberal democracy within member states.This paper discusses four principled concerns aboutdemocracy-saving EU interventions in memberstates: that an institution that is itself largelyundemocratic cannot credibly protect democracy;that there are in fact no common Europeanstandards that could be used to determine whethera member state is departing from a sharedEuropean understanding of democracy; thatinterventions are per se illiberal; and, finally, thatonly small states will be subject to intervention, aform of EU hypocrisy that delegitimizes Brusselsboth in the states concerned and possibly acrossthe EU as a whole. This paper counters all theseconcerns and argues that, ultimately, the problemwith intervention is not to be found on a theoreticalnormative level, but on a practical plane. As ofnow, the EU lacks a tool-kit to intervene effectivelyin member states; whatever it has recently usedby way of sticks and carrots can seem arbitrary oropportunistic. This paper concludes by makinga number of modest proposals as to how thissituation might be remedied. In particular, itsuggests the creation of an expert body, tentativelycalled the “Copenhagen Commission,” whichcontinuously assesses democracy and the rule oflaw within member states. Such an institution oughtto be authorized to conduct its own investigations,to raise the alarm about turns to illiberalism —and to impose a very limited range of sanctions.The existing mechanisms should stay in place, butideally would be complemented with the possibilityof entirely excluding a state from the EU.Safeguarding Democracy inside the EU 1
1IntroductionIn the nightmare of the darkAll the dogs of Europe bark,And the living nations wait,Each sequestered in its hate;Intellectual disgraceStares from every human face,And the seas of pity lieLocked and frozen in each eye.From W. H. Auden, “In Memory of W. B. Yeats”If a people — especially one whose freedom hasnot yet become prescriptive — does not value itsufficiently to fight for it, and maintain it againstany force which can be mustered within the country,even by those who have the command of the publicrevenue, it is only a question in how few years ormonths that people will be enslaved. Either thegovernment which it has given to itself, or somemilitary leader or knot of conspirators who contriveto subvert the government, will speedily put an endto all popular institutions: unless indeed it suits theirconvenience better to leave them standing, and becontent with reducing them to mere forms; for, unlessthe spirit of liberty is strong in a people, those whohave the executive in their hands easily work anyinstitutions to the purposes of despotism.From J. S. Mill, “A Few Words on Non-Intervention”Are there limits to political change within theEuropean Union? Or, put less abstractly,what if a member state appears to be on apath toward a regime that is no longer recognizableas a form of liberal democracy? Put even morebluntly, could there be a dictatorship inside theEU? If such a specter appeared, should Brusselssomehow step in to save or, for that matter, revivedemocracy? Or would this constitute an illegitimateform of meddling in the domestic affairs ofcountries that, after all, have delegated specificpowers to Europe — and not empowered Brusselsto be a policeman safeguarding liberal democracyacross the European continent, or even just tolecture Europeans from Lapland to Lampedusaon how popular rule is correctly understood? Allthese are no longer theoretical questions: recentdevelopments in Hungary and Romania have putsuch challenges squarely on the agenda of Europeanpolitics — even if concerns about a possible slidetoward illiberalism in both countries have beenlargely overshadowed by the euro crisis.I argue that it is legitimate for Brussels to interferein individual member states for the purpose ofprotecting liberal democracy. Four commonconcerns about such interventions are largelymisplaced.• First, the criticism that they are hypocriticalbecause the Union is itself not democratic andtherefore in no position credibly to act as theguardian of democracy on the continent.• Second, the worry that there is no single, fullyagreed model of European liberal democracythat could be used as a template to decidewhether countries are departing from shared“European Standard” (there might often betalk of such standards, but effectively, so criticswould claim, they don’t exist).Safeguarding Democracy inside the EU 3
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safeguarding democracy inside the eu - Transatlantic Academy

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