About
Why this dashboard?
The rule of law is enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union as one of the common values for all Member States. Under the rule of law, all public powers always act within the constraints set out by law, in accordance with the values of democracy and fundamental rights, and under the control of independent and impartial courts.
The dashboard was created to make the findings of the European Commission's Report 2020 Rule of Law more intelligible, visible and comparable. We have tried to intervene as little as possible in the transformation of information into numerical values.
The Lisbon Council’s analysts have extracted the key statements from each country report, and attribute a value (green, yellow or red) depending on its assessment. You can :
- Browse the report by topic and country.
- Access the original report by clicking on “view source” alongside each statement.
- Provide comments alongside each statement about the attributed color code and to bring additional evidence to the discussion.
This site has been designed and developed by The Lisbon Council asbl and is under its sole responsibility. It is not managed by the European Commission nor the European Commission bear any responsibility for its content or any use made by third parties of the content of the dashboard.
Methodology
The assessment in the dashboard follows the structure of the country reports which were divided into three pillars and sub-topics, as explained in the methodology paper.
Justice
- Efficiency
- Independence
- Quality
Anti-corruption
- Institutional Framework
- Prevention
- Repressive measures
Media Freedom
- Journalists' Protection
- Regulatory authorities
- Transparency of Media
Other Institutional Issues
- Accessibility
- Civil Society
- Independent Authorities
- Preparing and enacting laws
Each paragraph in the text of the sub-pillar (e.g. Justice, Excellence, paragraph 1) was analysed as one element of the assessment and given a score of 1 (red), 2 (yellow) or 3 (green).
The score of one (often marked with red colour) was assigned when there was a lack of a legislative measure(s) or a given reform raises concern of civil society and/or the European Institutions. The score of two (often assimilated to colour yellow) was assigned were there was a limited progress in reforms or not all measures are in place. The score of three (corresponding to green colour) was assigned where there was a significant progress in reforms, or all measures are already well in place.
An arithmetic average is then calculated for each sub-topic. The results have also colours assigned: values between one and two are considered red, values between two and three are yellow and the values of three are green.
The assessment of the pillar is the arithmetic average of all the averages of the sub-topics and visualised as a colour-coded mapping system - green, yellow or red, and the values are converted to a percentage scale. Finally, the overall assessment of the country is the arithmetic average of the pillars. The visualisation of results is a colour-coded map, with colours varying between green, yellow or red system (based on per cent scale).
As the basis of the assessment is a qualitative and not quantitative analysis, there is a possibility of a difference in opinion on how to assign the scores. We have opened a comment window by each of the individual assessment to gather views and adapt the assessment based on feedback should it be needed.
Source documents
The dashboard is based on the Staff Working documents of the European Commission and the Communication 2020 Rule of Law Report. The official reports are available on the European Commission website and accessible from every single statement by clicking on the “view source” button.