▲ 228 ▼ ‘New era’: Tusk celebrates exit polls suggesting opposition win in Poland (www.aljazeera.com) submitted 2 years ago by CAVOK@lemmy.world to c/europe@feddit.de 27 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago (1 child) Doesn't the EU have safeguards to twart down such "regimes"? permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 2 years ago (1 child) There's article 7, but it's deeply flawed, because it requires unanimity from the remaining members. So if 2 countries have authoritarian governments then they can protect each other. For the last few years it has mostly been Poland protecting the Hungarian government - by far the worst backsliding in democracy in the EU. Now Fico is going to Orban's best friend. In practice this leaves removing funds from the EU budget as a way to punish governments that are against democracy and the rule of law, but that's not been very effective and feels a bit icky. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 years ago I agree, as that money is intended to go towards structural reforms, in the end line aimed at improving living standards but we all know that a good portion of it is lost to corruption, especially in such regimes. Witholding such funds does feel like blackmail but it's the regimes holding the hostages and I do think dealing with crooks tends to produce poor results. At this point, we can be happy one change has happened. Let's remain vigilant. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 2 years ago (1 child) There's article 7, but it's deeply flawed, because it requires unanimity from the remaining members. So if 2 countries have authoritarian governments then they can protect each other. For the last few years it has mostly been Poland protecting the Hungarian government - by far the worst backsliding in democracy in the EU. Now Fico is going to Orban's best friend. In practice this leaves removing funds from the EU budget as a way to punish governments that are against democracy and the rule of law, but that's not been very effective and feels a bit icky. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 years ago I agree, as that money is intended to go towards structural reforms, in the end line aimed at improving living standards but we all know that a good portion of it is lost to corruption, especially in such regimes. Witholding such funds does feel like blackmail but it's the regimes holding the hostages and I do think dealing with crooks tends to produce poor results. At this point, we can be happy one change has happened. Let's remain vigilant. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 5 points 2 years ago I agree, as that money is intended to go towards structural reforms, in the end line aimed at improving living standards but we all know that a good portion of it is lost to corruption, especially in such regimes. Witholding such funds does feel like blackmail but it's the regimes holding the hostages and I do think dealing with crooks tends to produce poor results. At this point, we can be happy one change has happened. Let's remain vigilant. permalink fedilink source parent