The Equinet Secretariat filled out the questionnaire, focusing on equality as a fundamental value, on which the EU is built. It noted that the rule of law, equality and fundamental rights are parallel values, thus failing to guarantee one will harm the others as well. sing the European Commission’s 2018 Recommendation on Standards for Equality Bodies as a backdrop, Equinet’s submission concentrated on how rule of law breaches may affect these standards, namely the independence, effectiveness, resources, mandate and national institutional architecture for equality.