Enforcing Fundamental Values: EU Law and Governance in Hungary and Romania
| Author | Mark Dawson,Elise Muir |
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1201900401 |
| Subject Matter | Guest Editorial |
19 MJ 4 (2012) 469
GUEST EDITORIAL
ENFORCING FUNDAMENTAL VALUES:
EU LAW AND GOVERNANCE IN
HUNGARY AND ROMANIA
M D and E M*
One of the most signi cant stories of the EU’s development in the last 10 years has be en
the rise of fundamental rights as a signi cant plank of EU policy. is development
reached its zenith in 200 9 with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, placing a binding
Charter of Fundamenta l Rights, and the future accession of the Union to the ECHR,
at the centre of the EU legal order. A number of unanswered quest ions relate to this
development. One is the horizontal or ‘private’ application of EU fundamental rights.1
Another is the application of EU fundamental rights against the EU Member States,
particularly against Member States who may v iolate ‘fundamental values’ throug h
changes to the very const itutional foundations of the national legal order.
is latter quest ion has been given renewed sa lience via developments over the past
year in two Member States in pa rticular, Hungary a nd Romania.2 In the case of Hungar y,
both the EU institutions and external obser vers such as the Venice Commission have
frequently voiced concern that reforms undertaken by the government of Victor Orban
since its elevation to power in 2010may fall foul of rule of law standards.3 Much of this
attention has focused on the attempt of the Orban government to amend the country’s
constitution. e Hungarian government took adva ntage of signi cant parliamenta ry
majorities to push through a number of const itutional reforms and ‘cardinal laws’
– which came into force in Januar y 2012 – on the right to freedom of conscience and
* Mark Dawson is a Profess or of European Law and Governance at t he Hertie School of Governance,
Berlin; Elis e Muir is a Marie Cur ie Fellow and tenured Assi stant Professor at Maa stricht Faculty of L aw.
1 See e.g. Conferenc e on ‘EU Law in the Priv ate Sphere – Helping Hand or O cious Intermeddler?’ hosted
by the Maastr icht Center for European Law a nd the Maastricht Pr ivate Law Institute , 26October 2012.
2 See e.g. Editori al, ‘Hungary’s new constit utional order and ‘European Un ity’ 49 Common Market Law
Review 3 (2012), p.481–488.
3 European Parl iament, ‘Hungary shou ld respect the EU’s basic va lues’ (Press release, 16Februar y 2012),
www.europarl. europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?t ype=IM-PRES S&reference=20120216IPR38359&second
Ref=0&lang uage=EN (last visited 15 November 2012); Venice Comm ission, ‘Opinion on t hree legal
questions ari sing in the process of dra ing the Ne w Constitution of Hungary’, (CDL-AD(2011)001),
25–26March 2 011, www.venice.co e.int/docs/2011/CDL-AD(2011)001-e.pdf ( last visited 15November
2012).
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