Much like its fragile economy, the EU finds itself in a ”democratic recession”. That's the damning verdict of a new report released by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe. The NGO found that authoritarian tendencies are rising across the continent, chipping away at the fundamentals on which the Union was built.

In several member states, Liberties finds, governments manipulate judicial appointment processes or even plainly refuse to execute court judgements. Europe's media, meanwhile, suffers from ownership concentration and harassment of journalists, undermining the kind of free and unbiased reporting that is needed to hold governments to account.

Taking a page from the wannabe autocrat's playbook across the Atlantic, almost all EU member states increasingly fast-track legislative procedures and executive decrees. Unsurprisingly, Hungary snatches the crown regarding undermining the rule of law, with countries like Italy, Bulgaria, and Slovakia rapidly following suit.

The organisation warns that even ”role-model democracies” are failing to uphold the required standards in certain areas. It lists the excessive use of police force against pro-Palestine protesters in Germany and restrictions on the right to protest in France as examples.

For all the importance the EU claims to attach to the rule of law as one of its ”fundamental values”, it has so far stood by remarkably idly. The European Commission's reaction to rule of law breaches, even those as flagrant as Hungary's, has been rather muted, and its enforcement mechanisms remain weak.