Who guards the guardians in Europe?

Summary:

Over the last decade the European Union (EU) has been involved in a stand-off with Poland and Hungary over breaches of the rule of law and other EU common values—such as democracy, equality and human rights—by the two countries.

While the European Commission has opened the procedure provided for in the Treaty of European Union (article 7) to hold governments accountable when their actions threaten the bloc’s core values, the Council of the EU has avoided holding a vote which could have stripped these countries of their voting rights. It has done so on the assumption that Hungary and Poland would cover one another in the European Council through their veto power, thus blocking the adoption of any such sanction.