A New Chapter in the European Rule of Law Saga? - On the European Commission's attempt to mobilise Art. 2 TEU as a stand-alone provision

A New Chapter in the European Rule of Law Saga? - On the European Commission's attempt to mobilise Art. 2 TEU as a stand-alone provision Kaiser, Lena Author aut Text xx# 2023 Verfassungsblog 2023-03-04 eng ‘[B]y adopting the legislation cited in the first paragraph, Hungary has infringed Article 2 TEU‘. At first glance, this plea seems almost unspectacular. Yet, when one takes a closer look, this very plea demonstrates the European Commission’s attempt to write nothing less than a new chapter in the saga of the European rule of law crisis. The Commission’s action concerns the controversial Hungarian law of the Fidesz government, which restricts information about transsexuality and homosexuality. This blog post aims to provide an overview over the recent development and the academic debate regarding the justiciability of Art. 2 TEU in this context. I argue that although the mobilisation of Art. 2 TEU as a stand-alone provision might open new doors to tackle the democratic backsliding in some Member States, this approach has to be handled with great care. CC BY-SA 4.0 Kaiser, Lena Art. 2 TEU Fidesz Hungary Rule of Law rule of law crisis 342 https://verfassungsblog.de/a-new-chapter-in-the-european-rule-of-law-saga/ Verfassungsblog 2366-7044 Max Steinbeis Verfassungsblog gGmbH 10.17176/20230304-185110-0 230304 10.17176/20230304-185110-0 Converted from MARCXML to MODS version 3.7 using MARC21slim2MODS3-7.xsl (Revision 1.140 20200717)