On Friday 5 March, we organised a seminar about the rule of law and invited three amazing speakers to talk about possible lessons for the future and the discussion was led by our member John Morijn. Márta Pardavi (co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee) talked about the situation in Hungary and what she sees as avenues that organisations such as the Meijers Committee can take to tackle this issue efficiently. Anna Wójcik (researcher at the Institute of Legal Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, co-founder of ruleoflaw.pl and coordinator of The Wiktor Osiatyński Archive) talked about the current situation in Poland and what she sees as promising tools and instruments to address and change the current rule of law backsliding in the EU and particularly Poland. Kim Lane Scheppele (Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University) reflected on what (more) can be done and by whom concerning the democratic backsliding happening in several EU member states. Kim stressed furthermore that we cannot longer speak of ‘backsliding’ but should rather call it a ‘concerted assault on democracy in Poland and Hungary’. After the speeches, the participants had the opportunity to ask questions. We want to thank all speakers and participants for joining us for our first seminar organised within the project ‘Safeguarding the Rule of Law in the EU’.