FOREWORD

The book on "Democracy and the Rule of Law in the European Union" that we have the honour to present is the first monograph published by the European Constitutional Law Review on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the journal, which we are celebrating in this month of June. It is a work that collects the papers presented at the Congress that we held under the same title in Zaragoza on 28 September, thanks to the support of the Manuel Giménez Abad Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, to whom we once again express our gratitude. In a special way to Professor José Tudela Aranda, Secretary of the Manuel Giménez Abad Foundation.

The texts are published in English because it was the most common working language at the Zaragoza Congress, although Spanish and Italian were also used. The reflections it contains have not lost their relevance, even though there are always new developments on the subject. The latest is the new pro-European government in Poland since December 2023, which is returning the country to a democratic path inspired by European values and principles. This change is already mentioned in some works, although not the results of the last elections to the European Parliament in this month, June 2024, which have brought to the fore concerns about the advance of illiberal and anti-European positions in countries that are fundamental to the construction of Europe, such as Germany and France.

In the process of preparing the book we had to mourn the death of one of its authors, Hermann-Josef Blanke, a jurist committed to the European project, to which he dedicated a large part of his intellectual and academic effort. His contribution would later be updated by Aimee Sander, who also signs the article published in this work. We are sure that Hermann would view the current situation with the same concern as the rest of the authors, with the growth of illiberal and extreme right representation in the European Parliament and the negative perspectives that are perceived regarding the possibilities of advancing in the construction of Europe in the coming years.

The presentations at the Zaragoza Congress were complemented by the contribution of Zoltán Szente, one of the European intellectuals most committed to the defence of democracy and the rule of law, for many years in Hungary and currently at the European University Institute of Florence. This adds a particularly authoritative voice to the approaches coming from Germany, Italy and Spain, which reflect a common concern to combat the irrationality of political positions that manifest an obvious contempt for the rule of law, democracy and human rights, as well as a permanent distrust of the European Union. A European Union to which they only want to belong to benefit from its many advantages, but without assuming the commitments inherent in this great civilisational project.