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The Rule of Law Debate in the Conference on the Future of Europe

European Union
Europeanisation through Law
Political Regime
Jan Beyer
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Jan Beyer
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Julie Vander Meulen
Université Libre de Bruxelles

Abstract

The salience of the rule of law in EU polity increased over the last decades. This value referred to in Article 2 TUE has made the headlines in several EU member states, in particular where governments have adopted measures meant to limit the independence of the judiciary and to change the nature of their political regime. Prior to EU accession, Poland and Hungary implemented reforms supposed to consolidate the independence of the judiciary, while Romania has been often presented as a deviant case. In recent years, both the Hungarian and Polish governments sought to dismantle previous reforms, paradoxically, in the name of European values, while in Romania the rule of law still makes the headline on a daily basis. This puzzle has been approached from different angles putting forward party/EU politics and attitudes towards the EU as main explanations. One angle that remains under-researched is the social construction of the rule of law, that is the way in which the meaning of this value is framed in the public spheres of EU member states. To address this question, this paper analyses the rule of law debate in the context of the Conference on the Future of the EU. When is the rule of law a solution and why? When is it a problem and what are the grievances related to it? To answer these questions, the paper draws on frame analysis.