The European Union as Safe Keeper of Gender Equality

It is considered that gender equality is increasingly being seen as a structural value, especially in the context of the European Union, despite the gap that persists between law and practice. But the growth of the far right in recent decades can put fundamental values and human rights in jeopardy. The European Union is, therefore, aware of the violations that have occurred at the level of fundamental values—including democracy, the rule of law, and gender equality—and, consequently, has arranged various types of mechanisms to protect them. This constant implementation of new instruments to safeguard the founding values of the Union shows that these instruments have certain limitations and that there must be an interconnection of the mechanisms in order to achieve the desired objective. Thus, the present research intends to present the mechanisms that currently exist to preserve the founding values of the European Union and demonstrate its effectiveness through the analysis of the case of Poland, which has had a far-right government since 2015. Moreover, some recommendations will be made to try to improve the mechanisms in question.