Hungary and the EU’s rule of law protection

ABSTRACT

The EU is in the process of adopting a new Rule of Law Regulation which passed Parliament in January 2019. How is this a useful addition to the existing political procedures under the Treaties? Also, in what way would a revised litigation strategy before the European Court of Justice (CJEU) add anything to the arsenal of remedies thus available? Using principally the example of Hungary, the authors argue that the newly proposed regulation is a valuable addition, but that a somewhat revised litigation strategy can also help defend EU values.

KEYWORDS:

• EU values
• rule of Law
• democracy
• accountability
• Hungary
• populism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. CIA World Factbook estimated 432,744 refugee and migrant arrivals in the period January 2015-December 2018. It notes that Hungary is predominantly a transit country, hosting 137 migrants and asylum seekers as of the end of June 2018, with 1,626 migrants arriving in 2017. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/hu.html, rubric ”transnational issues”.

2. We are presuming that it would be the General Affairs Council, but technically, it could be any constellation of the Council of Ministers. See Article 16(6) TEU.

3. If the Council acts on a proposal from the Commission or the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

4. In other cases, for instance, when it acts on a proposal from the European Council.

5. Parliamentary questions 23 October 2013, ‘Answer given by Mr. Hahn on the behalf of the Commission,’ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2013-009719&language=EN. N. N.B. This answer footnotes Commission decision C(2011)7321 of 19 October 2011, and Article 99(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1083/2006 as the authority for the action.

6. Form of order sought. Court document (in Hungarian) available at http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=200650&pageIndex=0&doclang=HU&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=324200.