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Jean Monnet Lecture by EmergEU

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On 7 May, our speaker is Ramona Coman (Professor of Political Science at the ULB, Université Libre de Bruxelles), with a lecture about "What has the rule of law crisis transformed inside the EU polity?".

This is a guest lecture organised by the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence on Crises and Emergencies in EU Integration (EmergEU). EmergEU is embedded within the existing interdisciplinary Centre for European Research in Maastricht (CERiM).
In the upcoming three years (2024-2027), EmergEU will explore crises and emergencies in EU integration from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Centre seeks to illuminate the evolving discourse surrounding the multifaceted challenges related to the responses to crises and emergencies that have threatened the EU’s foundations. Recent examples include issues related to the rule of law, the COVID-19 pandemic, energy security, environmental crises, and the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine. Addressing such challenges demands responses that may reshape the EU’s institutional structures and policymaking processes.
In its first year (2024-2025), the Centre will address the conceptualisation of crises and emergencies in the EU context from a multidisciplinary (law and political science) and multilevel (supranational and national) perspective.

These lectures will take place physically and online. 

We cordially invite you to the upcoming lecture on 7 May with Ramona Coman, Professor of Political Science at the ULB (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and Emeritus President of the Institute of European Studies.

Lecture title: What has the rule of law crisis transformed inside the EU polity?

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Abstract: Over the past decade and a half, democratic backsliding in EU member states has often been analysed through the lens of enforcement of hard and soft policy instruments. This lecture adopts a different perspective. Rather than asking only how the EU responded, it asks what the rule of law crisis has revealed about the EU itself. The crisis challenged core assumptions of post-Maastricht integration: that democracy among member states was irreversible, that mutual trust could be taken for granted, and that integration could remain insulated from regime politics. In responding to these developments, the EU has become more political, more judicialised, and more willing to link financial solidarity to constitutional commitments. Yet the limits of enforcement also remain visible. Looking back from 2026, and in light of evolving political developments in the EU member states, the lecture offers a discussion of how the rule of law crisis has transformed inside the EU polity.

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