A normative crisis: How to protect democratic values in Europe

Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, Head of the Open Europe Programme at the Stefan Batory Foundation, writes that new financial mechanisms are needed to support civic initiatives to strengthen democratic values in EU Member States. This would call for the reform and better coordination of existing instruments and/or the creation of new, tailor-made ones, for example a European Values Instrument.

While the author highlights issues in Hungary and Poland, she also suggests the challenges are much wider across Europe and globally.

• Primary Source

Carnegie Europe: Strategic Europe, 30.01.18: The Legacy of Enlargement in Central Europe http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/75380?lang=en

ESO: Background information: Europe and its discontents: Poland’s collision course with the European Union (ECFR: Policy Brief, September 2017, et al) http://www.europeansources.info/record/europe-and-its-discontents-polands-collision-course-with-the-european-union/

Stefan Batory Foundation: normative empire in crisis – time for a politics of values, 2017 http://www.batory.org.pl/upload/files/pdf/Batory_Normative%20empire_K%20Pelczynska-Nalecz.pdf

ESO: Key Source: European Values Study http://www.europeansources.info/record/website-european-values-study/

ESO: Background information: Democracy in Europe. EU Commissioner Pushes for Hard Line on Poland (Spiegel Online International, March 2017, et al) http://www.europeansources.info/record/democracy-in-europe-eu-commissioner-pushes-for-hard-line-on-poland/

European Parliament: Press Release, 27.02.17: Discussion on the situation of fundamental rights in Hungary http://www.europeansources.info/record/discussion-on-the-situation-of-fundamental-rights-in-hungary/

DEM-DEC: Democratic Decay Resource https://www.democratic-decay.org/

ECFR: Commentary, 13.04.18: Orbán 3.0: What to expect next http://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_orban_3.0_what_to_expect_next

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