The effects of Covid-19 on the EU Approach on the Rule of Law. Implications for the Commission and European Parliament

The outbreak of COVID-19 in Europe has significantly affected European Union (EU, the Union) policy-making in a wealth of policy areas, partly altering the perception of policy priorities and the role of the EU in the scenario depicted by the crisis. Th is contribution aims to grasp the salience of COVID-19 ’ s eff ects in the context of the EU commitment to developing tools and procedures to address the ongoing rule of law crisis in some Member States and prevent future violations. Based on a content analysis of a wealth of public documents adopted by EU institutions from the beginning of the crisis, this contribution argues that the spread of COVID-19, namely, the unprecedented way in which the crisis has exposed the fragility of all EU values, has produced two specific consequences on the overall EU effort to uphold the rule of law (RoL). Th e first was urging all EU institutions and the majority of Member States to eventually converge to deliver without delay or obstructionism on pledged measures. Th e second was the beginning of a shift in the Commission’ s overall strategy to enhance European resilience vis- à -vis this crisis: from the primacy of the RoL as an ‘umbrella principle ’ related to, but eventually subsuming other key EU values, to a more balanced, cooperative and comprehensive approach, where diverse monitoring and protection initiatives on the RoL, democracy and fundamental rights mutually complement each other. Despite these changes, however, the Commission’ s approach remains significantly distinct and distant from that proposed by the European Parliament (EP), weakening the potential of the newly adopted tools.