EU Responses to Democratic Backsliding

The European Union (EU) has long considered itself a community of shared values such as democracy and the Rule of Law. Nevertheless, in the face of severe democratic backsliding in Hungary (since 2010) and Poland (from 2015 to 2023), EU institutions and leaders remained inactive or relied on soft instruments for about a decade. Only in recent years have EU institutions taken a more assertive stance against backsliding governments, most notably by supporting the (temporary) suspension of EU funds designated for Hungary and Poland since 2022. Reflecting the EU's policy change and the underlying evolution of EU politics, this chapter consists of two main parts, which describe and explain (i) the EU's lost decade in countering member state democratic backsliding since 2010, and (ii) its growing assertiveness in recent years.