The Rule of Law Toolbox
Upholding our fundamental values is a shared responsibility of all EU institutions and all Member States. As recognised by the Court of Justice, the European Commission has a responsibility for guaranteeing the respect of the rule of law and for making sure that EU law, values and principles are respected. To do this, the Commission has a number of instruments at its disposal – the so-called Rule of Law Toolbox. Since the challenges to the rule of law vary, so do our tools. Each tool is tailored to the specific situation at hand, and aims at promoting, preventing or responding to rule of law issues.
The Rule of Law Report
Since 2020, the European Commission has published its Rule of Law Report every year. This Report is at the centre of an annual cycle, the so-called rule of law mechanism, which allows to have an overview of where each EU Member State stands on the rule of law. It looks at both positive and negative developments. As part of this assessment, which is the result of hundreds of meetings with authorities and stakeholders each year, the European Commission also addresses tailored recommendations to all Member States.
This approach has brought results, with 65% of the 2022 recommendations having been, fully or partially, addressed in 2023. This shows that the Rule of Law Report has become a key driver for change, maintaining high standards of the rule of law in the EU. As of 2024, the Report also covers four enlargement countries.
Meet the people behind the Rule of Law Report in our series of videos and find out more about how the Report is prepared, the debates it triggers, and the results it has produced. Share the videos on social media using the hashtag #RuleOfLaw.
The Rule of Law Report
Preparing the Rule of Law Report
Continuous dialogue to enhance the rule of law
5 years of enhancing the Rule of Law Report
Other instruments in the toolbox
Instruments for promotion of the rule of law and prevention of problems:
- EU Justice Scoreboard: An annual report providing comparable data on the independence, quality and efficiency of national justice systems.
- European Semester: A yearly process resulting in country-specific recommendations on macroeconomic and structural issues, including on justice systems and the fight against corruption, aiming to boost economic growth.
- EU support for structural reforms: The EU provides technical and financial support for Member States to carry out structural reforms, for example through the Technical Support Instrument and in the context of the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Many Member States have included in their Recovery and Resilience Plans reforms and investments to strengthen their justice system, anti-corruption frameworks or the quality of the legislative process.
- Support for civil society, networks and projects: EU funding instruments, communication campaigns and promotion activities, including support for judicial networks, media pluralism and freedom.
Instruments to respond to rule of law challenges:
- Infringements procedures: Infringement procedures ensure that EU law is correctly applied and respected at national level. The Commission can launch infringements to ensure judicial protection by independent and impartial courts established by law as required by Article 19(1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) together with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
- Article 7 TEU: Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union is an instrument to address (the risk of) serious breaches to the rule of law, with dialogue and possible sanctions, adopted by the Council.
- Rule of law framework: An early-warning tool adopted by the Commission in March 2014, enabling a structured dialogue with a Member State to address systemic threats to the rule of law to prevent escalation.
- General budget conditionality: The conditionality mechanism can be applied in case of breaches of the principles of the rule of law, which affect or seriously risk affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget or the protection of the financial interests of the Union in a sufficiently direct way.
- Horizontal enabling condition on the Charter of Fundamental Rights: This is another tool to protect EU funds in the context of cohesion policy. The horizontal enabling condition on the Charter of Fundamental Rights requires all Member States to put in place effective mechanisms to ensure that the programmes supported by the Common Provisions Regulation and their implementation complies with the Charter. This is a precondition for related expenditure to be reimbursed.
- Cooperation and Verification mechanism (CVM): The CVM was a mechanism for regular monitoring and reports on progress made in Romania and Bulgaria to address benchmarks set at the time of accession related to judicial reform and corruption and for Bulgaria, the fight against organised crime. It was closed in 2023.