Democratic backsliding in its member states such as Hungary and Poland poses a significant challenge to the European Union (EU), undermining its core values of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. While previous studies have primarily focused on the feasibility and effectiveness of EU responses, this paper addresses the fundamental normative question of how the EU should act to address such backsliding. Drawing on the concept of multilateral democracy, the paper argues for the legitimacy and mandate of the EU to influence the domestic political institutions of its member states. It examines the normative implications of different tools, particularly the suspension of voting rights in the Council and the expulsion of backsliding states from the EU. By using the framework of multilateral democracy, the paper provides a novel assessment of these tools. It argues that the multilevel understanding of multilateral democracy allows us to see that the suspension of voting rights is democratically preferable to the expulsion of member states.