Liability of Member States for the Violation of Fundamental Values of the European Union

Article 7 TEU protects the European Union against political developments in one or more member states that undermines values on which the common association is based. We identify three particular reasons for such a provision. First, the level of cooperation achieved within the European Union requires consensus on fundamental values among those public officials of the member states who participate in EU decision making. Second, since the European Union is not merely an association of states, but a polity of constitutional quality, diversion from the common values would undermine the realisation of rights of private persons of other member states in their cross-border activities. Finally, Article 7 TEU protects citizens and resident legal persons of the violating state against political changes that do not respect liberal values, even if achieved through a democratic process. The last issue, which, as the Polish and Hungarian cases have revealed, has been the most controversial, forms in fact the very core of the European integration project.

Article 7 TEU does not only allow for political sanction, but creates a special liability regime. Legal scholarship, however, has not yet undertaken a serious analysis of its individual components. A comprehensive analysis requires bringing together legal experts on European law, constitutional law, law of tort/delict, and experts that can bring a comparative perspective on solutions in other jurisdictions. The contributions to this book have been discussed during a conference at the Charles University Prague in 2016.