R. Silvestre: La crisi dei valori comuni e dello Stato di diritto nell’Europa centro-orientale
Rosita Silvestre: La crisi dei valori comuni e dello Stato di diritto nell’Europa centro-orientale. Quale futuro per l’integrazione europea? Milano: Giuffrè Francis Lefebvre 2025. VVIII, 225 p. ISBN 978-88-288-7658-8 € 35,00
The author – Research fellow at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples – analyses in her book “The crisis of shared values and the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe” the common democratic values in special EU member states, which she dates primarily to the eastward enlargement of the Union between 2004 and 2007. The principle “rule of law”, to which the candidate countries committed themselves, was implemented without considering the institutional specificities of the acceding states. It was also seen merely as a bulwark for the accession of the candidate countries. With accession, there was no political commitment on the part of the EU institutions to support these new identities. Since the EU’s powers in the areas of state administration and electoral systems, the organization of the judiciary and the work of national authorities are very limited, measures to strengthen democracy in the accession countries have proved to be legally unsound and only partially effective in practice.
From this starting point, the author analyses various critical aspects. A European dimension to the values of democracy, the rule of law and human rights required for accession only became clear at an advanced stage of integration. Until then, this process had been guided solely by the motto ‘Be like the West’. In this respect, the monograph contains a pan-european criticism that was also levelled in connection with the reunification of the two German states. It was only in the course of the case law of the European Court of Justice that the behaviour of some Central and Eastern European governments contrary to the rule of law was identified. The contractual obligation to act in accordance with the rule of law within the respective contributing state is too abstract for mere verbal recognition to suffice. The domestic institutions (authorities, courts) must be granted the appropriate powers to implement the principle of the rule of law in a de facto constitutional state. Only gradually have the many individual violations of the rule of law been recognized as systemic. It sees the main cause of this in the respective accession phases, during which technical and legal regulations for implementation were waived in favour of national interests. Put simply, it accuses the EU’s enlargement policy at the beginning of the millennium of giving priority to the quantity of new members over the quality of the rule of law. This mistake should not be repeated with the accession of the six Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia). The necessary democratic and institutional progress has not been achieved in these countries, and accession negotiations have therefore been suspended.
The change in awareness is documented in the Rule of Law Report of July 24, 2024, in which four Balkan accession candidates, as well as the Member States, were reviewed by the European Commission regarding to their commitment to the rule of law. The author argues that the European institutions should use the rule of law as a structural criterion of the enlargement process as a lever for strengthening the European Union as a whole. Although there are different constitutional traditions in Europe, democratic values are indispensable for the functioning of the Union. Recognizing the specific characteristics of different legal identities would not prevent states from upholding common values, while at the same time committing the EU to appropriate structural and substantive reform. The reviewer would add that NGOs can contribute to this, for example through the European Network ENALJ – in which the author is also active – dedicates its analysis of European civil society participation in the judiciary to the principle of „unity in diversity” to give new impetus to the necessary democratic element in an important branch of government that is in decline throughout Europe. (hl)
Suggested citation: Hasso Lieber, R. Silvestre: La crisi dei valori comuni e dello Stato di diritto nell’Europa centro-orientale [Review], in: LAIKOS Journal Online 3 (2025) Issue 2, p. 77.