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The #EUBudget #MFF row between 
&
and the rest of the 
reveals a major mistake in EU focus: It shouldn't be so pre-occupied with #RuleOfLaw. Thread 1/8
& and the rest of the reveals a major mistake in EU focus: It shouldn't be so pre-occupied with #RuleOfLaw. Thread 1/8
The quality of public discourse (lack thereof) is a much bigger problem than rule of law. It has deteriorated more than rule of law in & in the past decade. 2/8
source: https://reconnect-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/D5.1.pdf
& in the past decade. 2/8source: https://reconnect-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/D5.1.pdf
Whether politicians and citizens show respect for people with different opinions is key to democracy. It's essential for finding compromise and majorities and for accepting that we might lose an election every now and then. 3/8
The obsession with Rule of Law ignores the essence of democratic backsliding. You can't defend the formal institutions, like independent judiciaries, when the informal norms supporting them are gone. @dziblatt 4/8 https://crownpublishing.com/archives/feature/democracies-die-steven-levitsky-daniel-ziblatt
Social scientists have been pointing this out for a long time. For example, the great work by: @DrLiseHerman @enyedi_zsolt @MungiuPippidi @DrSeanHanley
It also mixes up core institutions of democracy with politics. The EU should insist on democracy as system but not block democratic choice on policies within that system. Universal suffrage, independent media and independent courts are essential. The EU should insist on them. 5/8
LGBTQI+ rights is something that should be left to national democratic politics. So is immigration. As long as individuals' possibility to vote and parties' possibility to campaign on it are not restricted legally or in practice, the EU should stay out of it. 6/8
What the EU needs is a quality of public discourse mechanism, not a rule of law mechanism. 
@AniaGora @reconnectEU 7/8
https://reconnect-europe.eu/blog/why-we-need-an-athens-commission-on-the-quality-of-public-discourse/
@AniaGora @reconnectEU 7/8https://reconnect-europe.eu/blog/why-we-need-an-athens-commission-on-the-quality-of-public-discourse/
Why is the EU obsessed with rule of law when the real problem is a deterioration of public discourse? Good question... 8/8
