http://dx.doi.org/10.17176/20161115-144944 https://verfassungsblog.de/the-eu-and-poland-giving-up-on-the-rule-of-law/ The EU and Poland: Giving up on the Rule of Law? Pech, Laurent Scheppele, Kim Lane eng 2016-11-15 electronic resource text/html ddc:342 Authoritarianism EU rule of law framework Jean Claude Juncker Verfassungsblog Verfassungsblog--2366-7044 CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 With an off-hand remark in a Belgian newspaper, President Juncker has called off the EU Commission's effort to pressure Poland into following the rule of law. If he went through with this, he would not only pull the rug from under his own First Vice President Timmermans and spare the national governments the necessity to live up to their responsibilities. The Commission President deciding that the slide of a member state into authoritarianism is not his business, with a Trump Presidency in the US coming, forgoes the European Union's claim to be capable of fulfilling its leadership role in the world.