IKV organised a webinar entitled "Rule of Law in the EU and Turkey" on 15 January 2021. IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu delivered the opening speech in the webinar which was moderated by IKV Deputy Secretary General M. Gökhan Kilit and continued with a panel discussion chaired by IKV Vice-Chairman Prof. Halûk Kabaalioğlu. Stating that the rule of law is a concept frequently brought to the agenda by the EU, IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu indicated that rule of law should be considered as the first area to implement reforms ahead of the European Council meeting scheduled for 25-26 March in which Turkey-EU relations would be discussed.

Chairing the panel discussion, IKV Vice-Chairman Prof. Kabaalioğlu pointed out to shortcomings regarding the rule of law and emphasized the significance of reforms in this area. In the panel session, Prof. Sanem Baykal from TOBB ETU talked about the significance of the rule of law as one of EU’s founding values as well as an integral part of the political criteria for membership. Prof. Bertil Emrah Oder, the Dean of Koç University Law School, indicated that rule of law has become a prominent theme in the use of funds under EU's COVID-19 recovery fund called “Next Generation EU” and that there was an extensive use of the term “backsliding” in the Commission’s latest Turkey Report in this area. Assoc. Prof. Fahri Gökçen Taner from Ankara University discussed the right to a fair trial in detail while the final speaker of the panel IKV Secretary General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas talked about global trends regarding rule of law and expressed hope about EU’s new mechanisms for promoting this concept.