The EU’s ‘actions-without-sanctions’? The politics of the rule of law crisis in many Europes

Forty years of populism in the European Parliament

“…Complex policy initiatives -such as the governance structure of the EU -are perceived as lacking legitimacy and accountability: the populist reaction to this shortcomings of representative politics should not be dismissed but rather taken into consideration (Kaltwasser, 2012). At the same time, it is undeniable that the growing importance of populist parties within the EP -and in particular of populist radical right (PRR) parties 3 -challenges core principles of the EU such as rule of law, media freedom, separation of powers, and equality, as exemplified by the conflict between Hungary and Poland against the rest of the member states on such issues (Closa, 2020;Soyaltin-Colella, 2020), to the point that Poland and Hungary have recently filed a complaint with the EU's supreme court over a mechanism that ties respect for the rule of law with EU funding.…”