VÄRNANDET OM EU:S GRUNDLÄGGANDEVÄRDEN I MEDLEMSSTATER -EU:s hantering av demokratiskt bakslag i Ungern och Polen

The European Union (EU) has been facing a challenge to control the maintenance ofdemocratic principles in several member states, most prominently Hungary and Poland. Thisessay aims to investigate how the EU has handled member states which opposes the EU's corevalues and how their actions can be explained by them being an international organization.Furthermore, the essay intends to answer these questions: how has the EU acted againstHungary and Poland regarding deviations from democratic principles and what authoritativerights does the EU have as an international organization to handle member statesdisobedience, and how is this expressed? This situation is relevant to study due to theimportance of democratic principles to the EU, but also because it sheds light on a biggercomplexity: EU’s relation as an international organization to sovereign member states andtheir right to intervene when they violate their rules. This issue will be studied by readingofficial publications from EU-institutions, which will be examined through a qualitativecontent analysis and an idea analysis with the three following concepts: internationalorganizations as democracy-promoters, international organizations as exercisers of power andinternational organizations in relation to the member states sovereignty. The conclusions ofthe study are that the EU have used mechanisms they have at their disposal in the studiedcircumstances, and that they through their role as international organization had theauthoritative right to interfere in Hungary and Poland regarding democratic principles