FYI check their Liberties site and this Executive summary from their 2024 report:

The Liberties Rule of Law Report 2024 is the fifth annual report on the state of the rule of law in the European Union (EU) published by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) – the most in-depth reporting exercise to date on the rule of law in the EU by acivil society network. The report, jointly drafted by Liberties and its national member and partner organisations, is a ‘shadow report’ to the European Commission’s annual audit of the rule of law, aimed at providing the Commission with reliable information and analysis from the groups to use in its annual audit, as well as offering an independent analysis of the state of the rule of law in its own right.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The rule of law is declining across the EU as governments continue to weaken legal and democratic checks and balances, a leading civil liberties network has said, highlighting in particular a sharp rise in restrictions on the right to protest.

Berlin-based Liberties said in its annual report, compiled with 37 rights groups in 19 countries, that in older democracies with mainstream parties in government, such as France, Germany and Belgium, challenges to the rule of law remained sporadic.

In France, the report said, last year’s pension changes were “enacted in a manifestly undemocratic legislative process” after the government used special constitutional powers, while journalists in Germany now faced criminal prosecution if they published judicial decisions that are not publicly accessible.

In Italy and Sweden, whose governments are respectively led and propped up by far-right parties, Liberties’ partners reported rule-of-law regression in areas including the justice system, media freedom and pluralism, civic space and human rights.

Slovakia’s Fico has said proposed overhauls, including scrapping a special prosecutor’s office dealing with high-level corruption, are necessary to end bias against his Smer-SSD party, but critics say the changes will protect his political and business allies.

Poland’s new prime minister, Donald Tusk, has promised to restore EU norms to unblock tens of billions in funding held back by Brussels over charges of democratic backsliding during eight years of rule by the nationalist Law & Justice party.

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