The Meijers Committee is a unique group of law professors, legal researchers, judges and attorneys working to ensure European legislation respects the rule of law and guarantees fundamental rights for everyone. Together, we work to assess EU legislative proposals in criminal, migration and constitutional laws from the perspective of the rule of law and fundamental rights.
The Committee and its members are devoted to raising the awareness of lawyers, civil servants and politicians about the importance of the rule of law in European legislation. We provide legal analyses that identify problems in EU legislative proposals while making concrete recommendations to ensure fundamental rights and the rule of law are respected.
Since its foundation in The Netherlands in 1991, the Meijers Committee has made significant contributions to the constitutional quality of EU law. European institutions – from the EU Commission, the EU Council, the EU Parliament to the EU Ombudsman – regularly implement our recommendations.
After the Treaty of Maastricht (1992), the European Union began continually intensifying its law-making capacities regarding migration law, criminal law and data protection. The Meijers Committee observes that such EU legislative developments often fail to include sufficient democratic accountability and access to justice. These developments affect all people who live within the European Union.
As the activities and scope of the EU legislator expand, it is increasingly important to call upon the EU to respect its founding principles, namely: Human dignity, democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Therefore, the Meijers Committee consistently emphasises the need for EU legislation that adheres to these values.
The Meijers Committee works to inform European institutions and both houses of the Dutch Parliament about the impact of European legislative developments. In this way, we provide national politicians with the necessary research and resources to influence the legislative process in Brussels.
Our current work (2021-2023) centres around the project ‘Safeguarding the Rule of Law in the EU’. This project addresses threats to the rule of law on two levels:
Read more about our project here.
