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eu leaders are fond of talking about the bloc's values but a much more fundamental question is whether we should have common rules for the way our governments are built how power is exercised and maintained in check [Music] the trouble is that like so much jargon in the eu bubble political leaders have not really explained in simple terms what rule of law is and why it matters so the question remains what is rule of law is it a culture a checklist or both well the commission says that while member states have different national identities legal systems and traditions the core meaning of the rule of law is the same across the eu yet some disagree hungarian justice minister judy varga argues that the rule of law is not a set of universally applicable objective criteria it lacks well-defined rules and remains the subject of much debate internationally and among national constitutional bodies and academia is the concept elusive or simply complex as a role over the preamble to the european constitutional treaty demonstrated few can even agree on what eu values really are [Music] poland and hungary have been subject to article 7 procedures since 2017 and 18 respectively primarily because of laws reforming the judiciary in poland and in hungary's case also freedom of academia media and civil society the processes against the two countries have not gone anywhere under the treaties it is almost impossible to sanction a state and while the two countries have vowed to support each other most other member states have also seen than enthusiastic to pursue the matter further the commission has taken hungary and poland to court over what it saw as particularly egregious instances of rule of law breaches with some success critics say however that the executive has done too little too late the proposal to link the disbursement of eu funds to the rule of law came back in 2018 now with the eu's 750 billion euro fund to aid national economic recoveries from the coveted 19th pandemic hanging in the balance european lawmakers see recovery money as their only leverage to get the so-called rule of law conditionality over the finish line in broad brush terms the charge of the west european liberal democracies is that the likes of hungary poland and others are guilty of political interference in the judiciary arbitrary constitutional changes cracking down on media freedom and civil society the line taken by the law and justice and fides governments in warsaw and budapest is that the rule of law accusations are politically motivated and an attempt by brussels to interfere in domestic governance they also point out that their governments enjoy public support and boast about their numerous victories at the polls while critics say that these governments have changed electoral rules gerrymandered curtailed the airtime of the opposition and employed other tactics to tip the polls in their favor it is nothing we haven't seen even in the so-called old democracies we are seeing it happen right now across the atlantic the central european governments then use these majorities to pass political reforms by law that may be unpopular abroad but it's hardly illegal they have simply used the tools that parliamentary democracy offers viktor orban may have passed a new constitution after coming to power and three landslide victories later has already amended it seven times the point is each time he had the super majority to do it though unevenly distributed the impressive economic growth of both poland and hungary demonstrates that in the medium term at least the economics of the single market is compatible with questionable democratic credentials nonetheless the rule of law matters because abuse of democratic values cannot just be a national concern when dealing with pan-european legislation markets legal frameworks and billions of euros of public money the state of the national judiciary has a major impact on the implementation of eu white law similarly the absence of strong economically healthy independent media does not only matter for citizens in hungary or anywhere else civic freedom does not only matter for the national conversation when eu institutions conduct stakeholder consultations they often rely on ngos to get a better picture of citizens needs when their voices are delegitimizing their work oppressed eu legislation suffers a legitimacy crisis integrity of national elections matter because they produce the lawmakers who decide on eu laws and finance we all have a stake in each other's societies in a supranational union rule of law is not only national conversely when one rules by law its reach goes well beyond national borders the trouble is the eu leaders have really struggled to articulate what hungary and poland have done wrong last month the european commission presented the first iteration of the preventative monitoring mechanism the latest addition to its rule of law toolkit which is meaningless to all but the most engaged eu watcher and so far there seems to be little willingness on the part of the eu's old democracies to have a genuine conversation about rural problems naps may be right to push national governments to bind rule of law conditions to eu spending but their negotiating position is not strong the european economy has been battered by the pandemic businesses and employees across the block are reliant on the 750 billion euro recovery fund being agreed upon and dispersed immediately and european lawmakers will thus be under huge pressure to sign off on fund upholding and protecting the rule of law is one of the building blocks of europe but eu leaders have done a dismal job in explaining what it is and why it matters and even less in protecting it until they do this debate will remain unresolved and futile meanwhile those who do not play by the rule of law play by the rules of their own making