A new assessment of rule of law resilience in European Union candidate countries has been published by the European Policy Institute, showing that Georgia and Montenegro demonstrate the strongest overall performance among the states evaluated.

As the report reads, Georgia and Montenegro outperform the other EU candidate countries across several key indicators linked to governance, institutional effectiveness, and legal protections. The remaining candidate countries trail behind the 2 leaders in the overall assessment.

Another major criterion focused on regulatory enforcement - the capacity of institutions to successfully implement and enforce laws. Notably, the profiles of Montenegro and Georgia in this category most closely align with the EU average.

The study covered 10 candidate countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Turkey. Countries were assessed according to the following indicators: absence of corruption, the capacity to control corruption; regulatory enforcement, the ability to implement laws effectively, with Montenegro and Georgia scoring closest to the EU average in this category. Additionally, the assessment focused on the effectiveness of the criminal justice system, defined by its ability to deliver legal protection to citizens and businesses. The assessment draws on data covering the period 2014–2024.