The 2024 Rule of Law Report examines developments across all Member States, both positive and negative, in four key areas for the rule of law: the justice system, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and freedom, and other institutional issues related to checks and balances. It includes country chapters for all 27 Member States, which rely on a qualitative assessment carried out by the Commission, analyse new developments since the previous Report and the follow-up to the challenges and developments identified in the 2023 edition. 

European Commission, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CNECT), 2024.

A study commissioned by the European Commission highlights the significant potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve public sector services across the EU. The report emphasizes that AI can enhance citizen-government interactions, boost analytical capabilities, and increase efficiency in key areas such as healthcare, mobility, e-Government, and education. These sectors are identified as among the most ready for large-scale AI deployment, with applications ranging from autonomous vehicles and smart traffic systems to AI-driven healthcare solutions and education technologies.

European Court of Auditors, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The rule of law is one of the founding values of the EU. This review contributes to a better understanding of the EU’s rule of law landscape and its tools, focusing on the Commission’s annual Rule of Law Report – a preventive tool that presents the Commission's assessment of significant rule of law developments in member states and makes recommendations on the issues identified. We clarify the Report’s place and purpose within the rule of law landscape and explain its production and follow-up, describing each step of the process from the collection and assessment of inputs to the formulation of recommendations. We highlight challenges and opportunities concerning, for instance, the Report's methodology or the relationship between various rule of law tools.

European Commission: Directorate-General for External Relations and United Nations Organisation, Compendium of good practices – Measuring results in counter-terrorism and preventing and countering violent extremism, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The objective of the Compendium is to support programme managers, evaluators, and other experts in reliably measuring and evaluating the results of CT and PCVE interventions. Through this emphasis, the Compendium aims to promote a culture of demonstrating the results of CT and PCVE work across the EU and UN. Ultimately, this focus on measuring results will enhance the implementation of relevant, coherent, effective, efficient, and sustainable CT and PCVE interventions for the benefit of end-recipients in all EU and UN Member States.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Guittet, E., Vavoula, N., Tsoukala, A. et al. European Parliament, 2022.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, aims to provide background information concerning police ethics, accountability, and oversight across the EU. The study shows that existing EU tools and instruments can contribute to enhance police accountability. The study also identifies some gaps and weaknesses. Recommendations are provided in order to remedy the gaps and weaknesses identified.

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union and Morijn, J., Enforcement of EU law in the area of freedom, security and justice, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of how EU law in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) is currently enforced. It discusses traditional enforcement tools like infringement actions, budgetary conditionalities and other policy-based monitoring and evaluation methods. Based on this it formulates policy recommendations to further improve AFSJ-enforcement in a comprehensive manner.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services. European Parliament, 2022.

In the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe, four European citizens' panels have discussed the development of European integration in broad subject areas. For each of the 39 recommendations put forward by European Citizens' Panel 2: European democracy / Values and rights, rule of law, security, the present paper sets out a selection of the most recent and relevant European Parliament resolutions on the matter and looks at existing EU legislation and other EU funding programmes, supporting and coordinating actions. However, this paper is not intended to serve as an exhaustive list of all European Parliament resolutions and EU-level action in the area, but rather aims at feeding debate and discussion during the Conference plenary.

European University Institute, Closa, C., Hernández, G. University Institute, 2023.

The Rule of Law Report is an annual exercise to monitor Member States’ compliance with this core EU value. First published in 2020, the latest edition of the Report has introduced countryspecific recommendations to guide Member States’ action in correcting the problems identified. This Policy Brief examines the evolution of the Report and suggests some proposals to further strengthen its soundness and legitimacy in subsequent editions.

European Economic and Social Committee.

The aim of the country visit reports is to reflect and reproduce the views of civil society.

European Economic and Social Committee, Fundamental rights and the rule of law – National developments from a civil society perspective, 2018-2024, European Economic and Social Committee, 2024.

This report aims to synthesise civil society’s views on national trends in fundamental rights and the rule of law, drawing on the EESC Fundamental Rights and Rule of Law (FRRL) Group’s first cycle of country visits. Covering the 27 EU Member States visited by the FRRL Group between 2018 and 2024, the report focuses on long-term trends and commonalities with respect to fundamental rights, the rule of law, democracy, and discrimination across Europe. The FRRL Group acknowledges the challenges in capturing a comprehensive view of each country’s unique situation, but emphasises the added value of its socio-economic approach to these issues as well as the importance of dialogue in these areas. This qualitative approach, based on interactions with over 600 representatives from various organisations, provides insight into the social and economic contexts of fundamental rights and rule of law developments.

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2024 reviews major developments in the field in 2023. Given the backdrop of threats to fundamental rights and freedoms in Europe today, FRA’s annual report is a timely review of the most pressing issues. It also presents FRA’s opinions on these developments, including a synopsis of the evidence supporting these opinions. The introductory lead chapter provides a broad view of fundamental rights concerns in 2023. Rising racism is a worrying trend, alongside an increase in incidents of hate against Jews and Muslims. Increasing digitalisation of our societies appears unstoppable and yet has ramifications for fundamental rights protections.

European Parliament: Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services, Centrone, M. and Fernandes, M., Improving the quality of European spending on defence – Cost of non-Europe report, European Parliament, 2024.

Building a European defence union is at the top of the EU's policy agenda. It is essential to preserving the security and wellbeing of EU society from current and future geopolitical threats. A reflection on the efficiency and quality of defence spending is a crucial first step in this process. Based on research carried out for the European Parliamentary Research Service, this report investigates the potential gains from deeper European cooperation on defence spending that leverages the continent's economies of scale regarding: (i) military forces and strategic assets, (ii) defence equipment procurement, and (iii) research into emerging disruptive technologies. The cost of non-Europe in defence spending is estimated to range from €18 to €57 billion per year. EU action to boost the efficiency and quality of European defence spending could also create jobs, improve the certainty of the business environment and boost the rule of law.

European Commission, European Committee of the Regions, Joint Research Centre, Kovacic, M. Publications Office of the European Union, 2022.

The European Commission’s Competence Centre on Composite Indicators and Scoreboards (COIN) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been invited by the World Justice Project to draft an audit of the 2021 edition of the Rule of Law Index (ROLI). The JRC-COIN is a renowned research group by its expertise on statistical methodologies and guidelines on the development of sound composite indicators and has audited over 100 composite indicators for international organisations. The Rule of Law Index (ROLI) is a multidimensional index covering 139 countries and jurisdictions according to how the rule of law is experienced and perceived around the world.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Justice, rights and values – Eurobarometer report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The European Union aims at promoting peace amongst its people and creating a vibrant civil society and citizen participation in democratic life. It is founded on common values encompassing, in particular, fundamental rights, non-discrimination and equality, anti-racism and tolerance, the respect for human dignity, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. To promote rights and values, the EU has used several instruments combined in a policy mix: legislation, policy development and implementation (including awareness-raising events, initiatives and tools) as well as funding.

European Commission: European Research Council Executive Agency, Mapping ERC frontier reseach – Democracy, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This report presents ERC-funded research projects that examine a wide variety of aspects linked to democracy. It explores the multifaceted challenges confronting democratic systems while also illuminating the enduring resilience of democratic principles and civic engagement. The projects presented in this report were identified by keyword searches on all Horizon 2020 (2014 – 2020) and Horizon Europe (2021 – 2027) ERC-funded projects. As the list was broad, the resulting pool was refined, retaining 215 projects.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. Publications Office of the European Union, 2022.

Free media are a key pillar of every democracy and they are essential for a healthy market economy. On a global scale, the European Union remains a stronghold for free media, setting a standard as a democratic continent. Yet, there are increasingly worrying trends. Building on past efforts, the Commission has taken a number of measures to protect media freedom and pluralism in the EU.

European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, Multi-annual strategy – 2025-2027, European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, 2024.

Eurojust is the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation. We bring together prosecutors and judges from across the European Union (EU) and beyond, in an effort to effectively tackle all forms of serious cross-border crime. Through our expertise and support, we make sure that criminals are held responsible for their actions and justice is done. Eurojust is strongly committed to pursuing its mission, convinced that the proper and timely implementation of judicial cooperation procedures and the coordination of cross-border investigations are indispensable tools in applying the principle of the rule of law and in protecting the victims of crime.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Charveriat, C., Abdallah, S., Jong, S. and Vladimirov, M., New metrics for sustainable prosperity – Options for GDP+3 – A preliminary study, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

In an attempt to align key indicators with the European Commission’s new vision for Europe’s sustainable prosperity, GDP+3 aims to provide a simple set of four headline indicators (including GDP) to inform policymaking at the highest level. It also aims to provide a complementary approach to dashboards currently being developed by the European Commission whose purpose is to inform policymaking at a more technical level, such as the country recommendations in the semester. This scoping study defines the key criteria for selecting indicators and proposes three options for GDP+3 indicator sets. It concludes by setting out the opportunities and challenges for communicating GDP+3 and outlining concrete policy recommendations for policymakers to implement a GDP+3 framework in the next 3 years.

European Commission: Secretariat-General, No place for hate – A Europe united against hatred, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Communication and Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Rule of law – Eurobarometer report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The survey looks into several key aspects key as covered in the Rule of Law Report Key topics are: The support for EU values and the rule of law including the perceived importance of the EU's fundamental values, the perceived role of the EU in upholding the rule of law and the perceived level of information about the EU's fundamental values and the rule of law. The general perception of the justice system on a national level and the improvements of national justice systems over the past five years.

European Court of Auditors, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The rule of law is one of the EU’s fundamental common values. The situation has deteriorated in some member states over the last decade. The EU adopted a new instrument in December 2020 to protect its financial interests against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in EU countries: the Conditionality Regulation. We assessed whether the Commission’s application of the Conditionality Regulation was appropriate and consistent with other mechanisms available under the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Common Provisions Regulation 2021-2027 for cohesion policy.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Botero Arcila, B., Griffin, R.European Parliament, 2023.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, examines risks that contemporary social media - focusing in particular on the most widely-used platforms - present for democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights. The study focuses on the governance of online content, provides an assessment of existing EU law and industry practices which address these risks, and evaluates potential opportunities and risks to fundamental rights and other democratic values.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Recent years have seen a wave of far-right populism gaining momentum in many countries. In this Statement, the EGE analyses how this puts democracy at risk. It formulates a substantive understanding of democracy that does not limit it to elections, but makes real the values and rights it is based upon. The EGE further reflects on how understandings of identity that are not defined by exclusionary categories but encompass plurality can contribute to people’s appreciation of the European endeavour and strengthen their participation in society. It highlights the need for a reorientation of Europe to its social roots as key for countering the rise of authoritarianism. On this basis, the EGE proposes a series of recommendations for a democratic and vibrant European civic space.

Corruption poses a significant threat in the European Union and can contribute towards an erosion of democracy and the rule of law, especially during times of crisis. The European Union can do more to tackle corruption and curb its negative impacts on society. This report presents a quantitative analysis of the potential gains from further EU action to tackle corruption, estimating that it could generate up to €58.5 billion per year. Other gains could also be expected in terms of reinforcing democracy and promoting international credibility and long-term growth.

Citation style European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, Rubio, E., Kiss-Gálfalvi, T., Nguyen, T.et al. European Parliament, 2023.

The rule of law Conditionality Mechanism is a new instrument that entered into force in January 2021. It allows the European Union (EU) to take measures in cases when breaches of the rule of law principles affect or seriously risk affecting the EU budget or the EU’s financial interests. As this new mechanism has so far only been applied once, some questions are left open on its application and the possibilities offered by it. The full study discusses the potential scope of application of this new tool. In particular, it analyses how it can be used either as an alternative to, or in combination with, other tools and mechanisms aimed at protecting the EU’s financial interests.

European University Institute, Closa, C., Hernández González, G. European University Institute, 2021.

The Rule of Law Report, firstly introduced by the European Commission in 2020, monitors annually the rule of law situation in member states. This exercise helps to identify and to anticipate breaches and prevent further erosions. This Policy Brief proposes a series of methodological improvements for upcoming editions that might help to strength the robustness of the report.