At the December 2023 European summit, the EU member states officially decided to pursue enlargement of the Union by opening accession talks with Ukraine and Moldavia. As in previous enlargements, a number of conditions relating to compliance with the EU’s treaties and values will have to be met before the process can advance. Among these, respect for the rule of law is an essential prerequisite. However, this has suffered in recent years within the EU itself, some of its member states (Hungary, Poland) having mounted a challenge to rule-of-law principles. However, in a situation where unanimous votes are required, it is very difficult to force these offending states to reverse their actions, except by employing funding as a weapon. It is therefore along those particular lines — by the establishment of new arrangements for the ‘conditionality’ of funding — that the European institutions are exerting pressure on the members that do not respect the Union’s fundamental values.
Catherine Vieilledent explains here how this conditionality works: how it emerged and has developed; how it has been applied (with difficulty); and the consequences for the states concerned. Though somewhat technical in appearance, the question of conditionality bears on some major issues relating to the founding values of the EU, in a context where the power balance between democratic parties and populist, extremist ones is currently shifting somewhat in the latters’ favour.
