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Latvia’s president warned MEPs on Tuesday (14 February) that “constitutional populism” in some EU international locations is placing European democracy in danger.
Egils Levits, who served as a member of the European Court docket of Justice for 15 years, took a dig at on the Hungarian and Polish governments — with out mentioning them by identify — saying the EU’s democracy and rule of legislation are below risk from inside.
“The obvious problem [the EU faces] is a want to restrict the rule of legislation on the idea of populist arguments in regards to the will of the folks,” he mentioned on the European Parliament’s plenary.
Levits mentioned {that a} “trendy constitutional democracy is predicated on a fastidiously balanced system” with a democratically elected parliament and an impartial judiciary.
“The upsetting of this stability the proponents of constitutional populism are searching for to realize could finally result in the weakening or full lack of democracy itself,” he mentioned.
Levits, who served as ambassador to Hungary within the Nineteen Nineties, mentioned that if there’s a drawback with rule of legislation in a single member state, it impacts the whole EU.
“The democracy course of itself, free election and political freedoms, the core European political identification can solely be assured by such a system of checks and balances,” he warned.
“In some circumstances these populist tendencies have result in disputes that are actually tough to unravel in purely authorized manner,” Levits mentioned, including that political options must be discovered.
“The rule of legislation in Europe should not be weakened,” he argued.
Levits, who has been the pinnacle of state and chief commander of the Baltic nation since 2019, mentioned European values — akin to democracy, rule of legislation and basic human rights and the authorized system “make the EU and our frequent lifestyle enticing for us and enticing for others”.
He mentioned member states of the EU are “in precept secure, consolidated democracies”, nevertheless, “we face severe challenges”, referring to the populists.
Hungary and Poland have been below EU scrutiny for years over their weakening of the rule of legislation, politicising the judiciary — and within the case of Hungary, dismantling different impartial establishments.
“The European authorized system is predicated on mutual belief, that the identical rules apply in all member states in the identical manner, with out exceptions,” Levits warned.
He mentioned the nationwide identification, tradition, language and traditions of member states shouldn’t be interfered with by “Europe”, however that the rules of rule of legislation have to be the identical all over the place.
It’s the frequent European authorized system that distinguishes the EU from all different worldwide organisations, he argued.
‘Provincialism’
Levits didn’t mince phrases when it got here to criticising the western a part of the EU for permitting the bloc to turn out to be depending on Russian vitality, which he referred to as “naive”.
He mentioned that regardless of the collapse of the Soviet Union greater than thirty years in the past, “the borders of consciousness” in Europe nonetheless exists.
“European historical past for too lengthy has been seen as simply western Europe and this provincialism prevents us from reaching our targets,” he informed MEPs.
Levits mentioned there’s a want for frequent understanding of European historical past the place there’s a place for the historic experiences of all European nations. Having a “consolidated frequent standpoint” helps Europe outline its place on the planet, he argued.
Levits, who spoke to MEPs as a part of a sequence of EU leaders paying out their European imaginative and prescient invited the lawmakers to Riga, and to “get to know us”.
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