Forum Europaeum 2024: Rule of law instruments in view of EU accession

On 12 July 2024, the European Policy Institute (EPI) held the annual conference Forum Europaeum 2024 – Rule of law instruments in view of EU accession. The conference was attended by experts from various fields, such as policy makers, academics and representatives of civil society organizations. The main objective of the conference was to stimulate discussion on the situation of the rule of law in EU member states and candidate countries, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of the conditionality mechanism in regard to the rule of law and maintaining and promoting the European values.

The participants developed a debate, in which they expressed different opinions and views, emphasizing the importance of the rule of law not only as an important chapter in the accession negotiations of the candidate countries, but also for the EU member states. The conference presented the state of play of the rule of law in different countries such as North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia as countries with aspirations of becoming members of the European family. The state of the rule of law in Croatia was also elaborated together with the difficulties it faces in this field as an EU member state.

The event was held within the framework of the project “Building bridges for a common future: Rule of law in view of EU accession” which is implemented by EPI. Funded by the EU, the project aims to provide continuous communication between candidate countries and the EU regarding the use of rule of law instruments in the context of EU accession.