Abstract
This chapter analyses the establishment of a “multilevel rule of law system” that encompasses the supranational political system of the EU and several interdependent national levels of governance. We show how the principle of the rule of law in the EU has been set up by primary law and rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) based on different traditions of the EU’s member states. We argue that the doctrines of primacy and direct applicability, both developed through ECJ case law, are a manifestation of the principle of legal certainty and focal to the multilevel character of the EU’s principle of the rule of law. We analyse two different kinds of resistance of the national level against the EU’s rule of law system: First, we look into the case law by higher national courts striving to protect “their” national, constitutional principles and, therefore, tending to accept the primacy of EU law only to a limited degree. Secondly, we analyse the current violations of the EU principle of the rule of law in Hungary and Poland. In the final chapter, we discuss the possibilities of the EU’s institutions to react, especially with regard to the Art. 7 TEU procedure, the EU’s “Justice Scoreboard” and the Commission’s new mechanism for prearranging Art 7 procedures.
Keywords
- Multilevel Rules
- Supranational Political Systems
- Justice Scoreboard
- Legal Certainty
- BVerfGE
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- 1.
ECJ, C-294/83, Les Verts/Parliament, 23.
- 2.
ECJ, C-9/56, Meroni/High Authority of the European Coal and Seel Community.
- 3.
ECJ Costa/ENEL, 6/64, EU:C:1964:66.
- 4.
Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizensʼ Rights (1997): Report on the relationships between international law, Community law and the constitutional law of the Member States.
- 5.
ECJ, 26/62, 1963, van Gend & Loos.
- 6.
BVerfGE 123, 267.
- 7.
BVerfGE 89, 155; BVerfGE 126, 286.
- 8.
BVerfGE 126, 286.
- 9.
https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2013/EN/1-2013-47-EN-F1-1.Pdf COM(2013) 47 final (04.03.2018).
- 10.
ECJ C-286/12, Commission /Hungary, recital 5.
- 11.
The original statement about “illiberal democracy” was made by Orbán in a July 2014 speech. One of the key sections is: “We needed to state that a democracy is not necessarily liberal. Just because something is not liberal, it still can be a democracy. (…) We have to abandon liberal methods and principles of organizing a society the world. (…) in this sense, the new state that we are building is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state. It does not deny foundational values of liberalism, as freedom, etc. But it does not make this ideology a central element of state organization, but applies a specific, national, particular approach in its stead.”, cf. http://budapestbeacon.com/public-policy/full-text-of-viktor-Orbáns-speech-at-baile-tusnadtusnadfurdo-of-26-july-2014/10592 (28.03.2018).
- 12.
- 13.
ECJ, C-647/15, Hungary/Council oft he European Union (02.12.2015); ECJ, C-643/15, Slovac Republic/Council of the European. Hungary argued that the Council changed major details of the legislative proposal and didn’t rehear the Parliament thereafter.
- 14.
- 15.
https://ec.europa.eu/germany/news/20171220-polen_de (13.2.2018).
- 16.
European Commisson – Fact Sheet: College Orientation Debate on the recent developments in Poland and the Rule of Law Framework: Questions and Answers. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-62_en.htm (09.2.2018).
- 17.
ECJ, C-286/12, Commission/Hungary.
- 18.
- 19.
Promoting the Rule of Law in the European Union, 4th Annual FRA (European Unions Agency for Fundamental Rights) Symposium, Vienna, 7 June 2013.
- 20.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
- 23.
European Commission, «Communication from the Commisson to the European Parliament and the Council: A new EU Framework to strengthen the Rule of Law».
- 24.
https://ec.europa.eu/germany/news/20171220-polen_de (14.02.2018).
- 25.
Future of European Department/Foreign and Commowealth, “Review of the Balance of Competences between the United Kingdom and the European Union: EU Enlargement” December 2014, recital 2.116.
- 26.
Legal Service of the Council of the European Union “Opinion of the Legal Service, Subject: Commision’s Communication on a new EU Framework to strengthen the Rule of Law 10296/14”, 27.5.2014, recital 24.
- 27.
Legal Service of the Council of the European Union “Opinion of the Legal Service, Subject: Commision’s Communication on a new EU Framework to strengthen the Rule of Law 10296/14”, 27.5.2014, recital 28.
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Eppler, A., Hackhofer, A., Maurer, A. (2019). The Multilevel Rule of Law System of the European Union: Eked Out, Contested, Still Unassured. In: Antoniolli, L., Bonatti, L., Ruzza, C. (eds) Highs and Lows of European Integration. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93626-0_5
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