The watchdogs of EU democracy will have to be "much louder in the future" if they hope to see off a mounting threat from homegrown populists and autocrats who are chipping away at Europe's founding commitments to free speech and the rule of law, a top EU official has warned. "We have to make sure, wherever democracy is under threat, [where there is] shrinking space of civil society, then we have to raise our voices," Oliver Röpke, the newly elected president of the European Economic and Social Committee, an advisory body within the European Union, told FRANCE 24.
Röpke, an activist for union rights who previously served as head of the EESC Workers' Group, succeeded his fellow Austrian, Christa Schweng, in April at the helm of the 65-year-old Committee that bills itself as a gateway for democracy and fundamental rights in the 27-member bloc.
Röpke's presidency comes at a pivotal moment, a year ahead of EU-wide elections, with Russia's war in Ukraine testing the limits of Brussels' official solidarity with Kyiv, and governments in Hungary and Poland openly defying EU rules in the name of national sovereignty.
Autocracy rising?
Last September, the European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution saying Hungary could no longer be considered a full democracy. Instead, it termed the Central European EU member "a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy". The MEPs cited a breakdown in the rule of law and fundamental rights.
According to V-Dem, which monitors democracy around the world, advances in global levels of democracy made over the last 35 years have been wiped out.
Nearly three quarters of the world's population, or 5.7 billion people, lived in autocracies by 2022, V-Dem reported.
But Röpke prefers to see the democratic glass as half full.
He says the key to countering a drift towards authoritarianism is to enlist a broad spectrum of civil society – employers' groups, trade unions and environmental NGOs, among others – in building what his Committee calls "a more resilient, prosperous, and inclusive Europe".
In France, where the government of President Emmanuel Macron has faced months of strikes and street protests over a rise in the retirement age from 62 to 64, talks between unions and ministers have so far proven elusive, with both sides refusing to give way on their basic demands.
Röpke, while recognising differences in protest culture from one EU member to the next, said finding a consensus is possible, given the will.
Calling on civil society
"I think in the end it should be necessary that politicians always enter into dialogue with civil society organisations, with the social partners, in order to try to find avenues for future solutions," he said.
For Röpke, getting civil society involved in the democracy-boosting business does not stop at Europe's doors. For the first time, the EESC is pushing for citizens of countries hoping to one day become EU members to participate in its activities.
Ten countries are currently in the waiting room for EU membership. One of them, Turkey, has been stuck there for nearly a quarter of a century. Membership talks with Ankara have stalled in recent years amid concerns over human rights and, more recently, Turkey's fence-straddling between Kyiv and Moscow as Russia wages war against Ukraine.
Ukraine, which became an EU candidate country last June, has been pressing for fast-track admission to the European club. But Röpke said basic criteria had to be met first.
"Countries have to be ready," he said. "Also, their civil society, their democracy, their rule of law has to be robust and ready for the European Union."
Stuck in the EU waiting room
But he suggested it was unfair to let the process drag out too long.
"We cannot leave them waiting in the waiting room – grant them candidate status and then we don't do anything."
Röpke said he often encounters greater enthusiasm for the European Union outside the bloc, than inside. In France, a proposed legislative bill to require town halls across the country to fly the European Union flag alongside the French tricolour has stirred controversy, with some mayors fiercely opposed, citing a patriotic prerogative.
"Candidate countries in the Western Balkans are the countries with the most EU flags, I can see them everywhere," he said. "So they see Europe as a hope, I would say."
It is a message that he hopes will gain traction ahead of EU elections, set for June 2024.
"A European solution is better than a pure national one."
Programme produced by Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats
