Explaining Mechanisms behind the EU’s Inefficiency during the Rule of Law Crisis

• In Event: Take On Me: Institutional Rejection in Europe

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has experienced many crises since its creation as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), but in the last fifteen years, the intensity and types of crises that have taken place in the EU have changed. First, the Eurozone crisis, then the rule of law and liberalism-related issues challenged the EU’s long-standing order. However, these crises and the EU’s response showed that the EU is inefficient while making important decisions, such as punishing countries due to breaches of EU law. For instance, it took the EU years to react to democratic backsliding in Hungary. Even though they were slightly more efficient while dealing with Poland, the EU’s institutionally complex structure impeded positive developments in this area. Tömmel and Verdun (2017: 103) argue that this inefficiency is due to each EU institution's different competencies and decision-making systems. However, I argue that the inefficiencies in the EU’s institutional system happened because the three main EU institutions, the European Commission (EC), the European Parliament (EP), and the European Council/Council of the EU (the Council), compete for more influence in the EU politics which creates a power vacuum where some institutions shirk their responsibilities while other institutions gain more competencies. The competition among these institutions creates inefficiencies, and the vacuum is generally filled by ambitious national leaders trying to create more problems among these institutions so that they can circumvent the common European values at the EU level. In this paper, I will analyze the EU institutions’ response to the rule of law crisis in Central and Eastern Europe using an institutional approach. Even though there are other crises that happened in the EU, such as the Eurozone and the Syrian Refugee Crisis, the crisis related to the rule of law endangered the EU’s core values, such as democracy and the rule of law, and threatened the EU institutions the most by revealing the harsh competition between EU institutions.

Author

• Gizem Kaftan, Boston University