The idea of giving the European Commission the role of “watchdog” is simply “chutzpah”, believes Dutch political scientist Alfred Pijpers writing in De Volkskrant.

In early March, Germany, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands proposed that the EU be given new instruments to combat democratic drift as in Hungary. Debated on April 22 at the Council by the foreign ministers of the 27 meeting in Luxembourg, the proposal won majority backing. ”With the exception of the Czech minister, who expressed his reluctance, all the ministers asked the European Commission to work up the idea in the short term,” noted the paper on April 24.

Tools to steer weak democracies onto the right path are currently lacking, explains De Volkskrant –

The only weapon that the European Commission disposes of at present is the ultimate weapon: the suspension of the right to vote [in the Council] and the suspension of the flow of money to the state in question. As this ‘nuclear option’ is rejected throughout the Union, [the states] support less extensive measures [such as] recommendations of sanctions backed by progressive fines.

The political scientist believes that the crisis in the Eurozone is being abused to transfer more powers to the European level and a better step would be to contemplate expelling failing democracies from the EU.