Even though the findings of our report are gloomy, at Liberties we can’t help but be jubilant to see the splash our Rule of Law Report 2025 has made. This year’s report - over 1000 pages covering 21 countries with 43 contributors - is our biggest to date.

Media heavy hitters such as the Guardian, Der Spiegel, and la Repubblica covered the report’s main findings and the EU Observer published an op-ed by yours truly. And in development that definitely wasn’t on our 2025 bingo card…..Liberties made it to Tinseltown, where the Hollywood Reporter spotlighted the report’s analysis of Europe’s shrinking media freedom.

The media traction resulted in over 200 media mentions and 12 million views, which translated into new followers on Bluesky, LinkedIn and Instagram and more newsletter subscribers. We’re delighted to have new supporters of democracy onboard!

But we’ve also ruffled some feathers.

In Italy, Slovakia and Croatia, countries we described as ‘dismantlers’, as well as Malta, politicians weren’t happy with their rule of law report card and pushed back against claims that their governments were undermining democracy.

Our annual rule of law report is more than a democratic monitoring exercise, it also stress tests the very systems we evaluate. And this year’s political pushback proves our point - instead of taking responsibility and listening to the concerns of civil society, politicians shrug off accountability, discredit their critics and squeeze civic space.

We’re chuffed to see so many people care about democracy and are take the report’s alarming findings seriously. This is the sixth year that Liberties, alongside our network of human rights organisations, has produced the rule of law report and year after year we see the same downward trends.

We hope the groundswell of interest in this year’s report will translate into a renewed commitment to protect democracy. If you’re looking for a way to help democracy in less than five minutes, consider becoming a Liberties supporter. It takes a dedicated team of experts to produce a report of this volume and significance, and we rely on your monthly and one-off donations to keep the lights on.

In the meantime, we’ll be pressing the EU to respond with decisive action. We’ve sent the report to both the Justice and Equality Commissioners, as well the directors and heads of the Rule of Law Unit and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and a whole host of other influential rule of law actors. And the Commission got a sneak preview of the country chapters during their fact-finding missions to EU Member States as it compiles its own rule of law report. Once their report comes out, you can expect our annual rule of law gap analysis to follow.

Best,

Eleanor Brooks, senior communications officer