Backsliding in area of constitutional safeguards and independent institutions, corruption control, and general equality and minorities

The notion that political developments in EU member states might threaten the integrity of the organization is as old as the EU – or rather EEC – itself. European integration was in no small part an effort by the original six member states to impose some restrictions on their own freedom of action in the aftermath of three decades of war and international crises. Pooling sovereignty would help Germany, Italy, France and the three Ben-Ne-Lux states achieve peace and prosperity, and safeguard democracy. Two of them were recent dictatorships. Enlargement in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s brought in both long-established democracies and the recently authoritarian Greece, Spain and Portugal. Despite one or two tense moments, such as the attempted coup d’état in Spain in 1981, all three new democracies consolidated rapidly. The EU is often accredited with playing an important part in this. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the prospect of enlargement to a dozen or more formerly communist dictatorship prompted new questions about how to ensure that these ex-authoritarian regimes could take their place in the EU’s liberal democratic legal and normative system. The immediate result was the Copenhagen Criteria, laid down in the June 1993 European Council meeting in the Danish capital, which were designed to ensure that new member states were liberal democracies, respected human rights, had a functioning market economy and were capable of implementing the Acquis Communautaire. Combined with the obligation that all member states must be members of the Council of Europe, and a lengthy transition process, these rules should ensure that no new member state reversed its commitment to liberal democracy, free markets and the rule of law