EUROPEISKA KOMMISSIONENS INTERNA INCITAMENT - En kvalitativ textanalys om Kommissionens arbetssätt för att skydda sina demokratiska kärnvärden

In recent years, the European Union has witnessed a threat against the democratic values in the union. There has been a scientifically debate regarding the possibilites and the limitation of EU’s tools for dealing with democratic backsliding in the member states. This study examines how the European Commission is working to strenghten its internal incentives by developing conditions in forms of threats and rewards to defend democracy in the member states. The thesis therefore aims to answer how the European Commission works and negotiate with the member states after joinin the union, in terms of compliance with EU laws and regulations. This study is based on the Europeanization theory and the external incentives model and additionally the Commissions internal integration capacity. These theories will create the analytical tool that will be used to collect and interpret the result. A content analysis will be used to examine how the Commission works to defend democracy in policydocuments and actionplans. The results of the analysis shows that the Commission works on the basis of formulating threats rather than rewards to the member states, which can be linked to political conditionality