Аннотация: The paper analyses one of the hot topics of the constitutional debate in Europe, that is democratic backslidings in some new EU members States. This is a problem not fully studied by Russian political science and legal doctrine. Although many works in the international literature have been devoted to this subject, a general analysis of the political and constitutional causes of this regression is lacking. The innovative features of the article includes: an outline of the characteristics of the transition to democracy in the Central and Eastern Europe;the European Union ‘rule of law’ mechanisms and their failure, comprised the failure of the system of democratic conditionality; the cultural and constitutional framework of the new EU member states, including some defects in their constitutional engineering. The author uses the legal comparative method, which comprises also a historical approach with many political implications.

Аннотация: This work analyses one of the hot topics of the constitutional debate in Europe, - the democratic backslidings in some new EU members States. This is a problem not fully studied by Russian political science and legal doctrine. Although many works of Western research have been devoted to this subject, a general analysis of the political and constitutional causes of this regression is lacking. The author employs a cross-cultural method of legal research that includes a historical approach with multiple political connotations. The innovative features of the article include an outline of the characteristics of the transition to democracy in the Central and Eastern Europe. The author examines European Union's ‘rule of law’ enforcement mechanisms and the reasons for their inefficiency, the major reason for this being the immature system of democratic transition in Central and Eastern Europe. Another significant reason for this is the fetal stage of political culture and vague constitutional framework of new EU members, as well as flaws in their constitutional engineering.