The Rule of Law as a Guiding Principle of European Union’s External Action

The EU as a global rule of law promoter: the consistency and effectiveness challenges

“…In its external dimension, the rule of law is primarily referred to as a value to be upheld and promoted abroad (Pech 2012), the unexpressed premise being that the EU's global standing and own interests would benefit from an international order which would be based inter alia on the rule of law (Van Vooren 2013). Two key aspects can be distinguished in this context: The EU Treaties first present the rule of law as one of the transversal guiding principles of EU's foreign policy, which must not only be respected but promoted abroad (Art.…”

“…EU institutions rightly concluded from this that these principles must be understood as interconnected and interdependent principles (Pech 2012). In other words, the EU Treaties clearly compel EU institutions to promote an understanding of the rule of law that is not indifferent to the content or the substantive aims of the law and encompasses elements such as substantive individual rights (Pech 2013).…”

“…First of all, it may be argued that a broad consensus on the core meaning of the rule of law and its key sub-components has consolidated at EU level (Kochenov and Pech 2015). Secondly, the fact that the EU's rule of law external agenda is primarily governed by political considerations is actually at the heart of the problem as the gap between rhetoric and reality has enabled an à la carte enforcement of the rule of law depending on the EU priorities du jour which has rendered the EU's multiple and recurrent references to its attachment to this cherished principle largely void of any meaning (Pech 2012). Furthermore, a 'uniform' or rather unified conceptual framework does not have to be necessarily incompatible with a context-sensitive approach.…”

“…As noted above, this has led the EU to define and implement policies in a rather impressionistic manner. It has also allowed EU institutions to recommend reforms or adopt different stances depending on their political priorities du jour and/or the political weight of the relevant non-EU country, or claim success on the basis of nothing more than the formal adoption of a number of texts in a variable number of areas (Kochenov 2008;Pech 2012).…”

“…It may therefore prove more useful to the generally more legalistic organisation that is the EU. It also defines the rule of law as set of interrelated substantive and procedural elements, which is closer to the EU's understanding than the World Bank's one (Pech 2012):…”