Rule of Law: A Reform Without Enforcement
⚠️ Disclaimer: This blogpost is AI-generated for presentation purposes only. It does not reflect real data or official assessments
📊 Note: Reports like this will be based on real ALIGNED dataset insights. You can fully customize it here to explore topics that matter to you.
Over the last decade, the European Commission’s reports on Serbia have shown consistent concern over the independence of the judiciary. Yet, when analyzed using the ALIGNED dataset, a paradox emerges: while rhetorical alignment with EU standards steadily increases, concrete institutional safeguards remain either “stagnant” or “regressive” in EC language.
The ALIGNED tool tracks sentence-level evaluation scores across time and highlights that between 2017 and 2022, the most common EC phrase was: “Efforts remain insufficient.” Importantly, the tool exposes that in 2021, for the first time, the Commission downgraded its tone on prosecutorial independence despite technical compliance being marked as ‘substantial.’
Graph 1. Rule of law decline – EC reports on Serbia (2014-2024)
Source: Reform Track (2025), ALIGNED fake dataset [fake dataset]
This divergence suggests a shift from normative conditionality to narrative containment—presenting formal reform steps while withholding qualitative endorsement.
In policy terms, this indicates a saturation point in the EU’s conditionality mechanism: if reforms are being praised for alignment but simultaneously flagged for lacking enforcement, the credibility of the reform process itself may be undercut. ALIGNED’s score tracking offers a unique window into how “progress” can be framed while accountability erodes—raising serious questions about how long rhetorical compliance can substitute for institutional action.
Alignment has outpaced enforcement; reform is now more rhetorical than institutional.
