Európai Tükör

Praesidens

Kecsmár Krisztián — 2024-05-30

The Future has Begun?

Bólya Boglárka — 2024-05-30

The Conference on the Future of Europe, launched by the European Union in 2021, aimed to engage citizens in a dialogue and serve as a key platform for EU institutions to discuss the future direction of the European Union. Hungary actively participated in the process, and the objective of our study is to shed light on the contributions of Hungarian citizens and the conclusions drawn from them. The study also explores the post-Conference landscape, tracing the evolution of the proposals arising directly or indirectly from the debates on the future of Europe, with a reflection to their possible implications on the revision of the EU Treaties.

European Integration at a Crossroads – Which Direction to Take?

Gottfried Péter — 2024-05-30

Europe of Nations – Illusions and Realities

Szent-Iványi István — 2024-05-30

The Different Angles of the European Democracy

Sándor Lénárd — 2024-05-30

The history of the institutionalised cooperation in Europe now looks back to more than seven decades. What differentiates this cooperation from other international organisations is the common heritage and destiny the European countries share and the community they have found in a high level of integration. However, since the very beginning of this cooperation, there have been debates about the best method and way to express common European positions. Part of this debate is the question of the democratic legitimacy of the Union institutions. As it is set out in Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union, democracy is not only a fundamental value of the Member States, but also an expectation towards the European Union. Even though the institutional setting of the European democracy has gone a long way in the past seven decades, the question of democratic legitimacy is still being one of the key subjects and future challenges within the framework of the currently ongoing discussions on the future of Europe. There is no shortage of reform proposals, nevertheless, the main debate has been rather one-sided as it envisions only one avenue to decrease the so-called “democratic deficit” and strengthen the European policy space. What is the function of democracy in the context of the European integration and how can it represent a European position or serve as a check over the Union institutions? What institutions could be able to create a bridge between the peoples of the Member States and the European institutions? This paper seeks to outline the different responses to these questions. To this end, it outlines the theoretical background and institutional evolution of democratic legitimacy in the European integration while seeks to evaluate the current proposals and envision the alternative ones.

The Concept of Constitutional Identity as a Substantive Expression of the Principle of Subsidiarity

Orbán Endre — 2024-05-30

The introduction of the subsidiarity principle by the Maastricht Treaty was intended to strike a balance between the Member States and the supranational level in terms of non-exclusive competences. However, the principle of subsidiarity in the current EU structure is Janus-faced: although it was theoretically included in the founding treaty to protect the lower levels, its modus operandi is actually aimed at demonstrating the supranational level’s capacity to act. Perhaps this is why the enshrinement of the subsidiarity principle in the Treaty has not lived up to expectations, and the relevant Treaty provisions have largely remained dead letters. At the same time, the need represented by the principle of subsidiarity, namely the protection of the autonomy of the Member States, remained present in European integration, which finally emerged in the concept of constitutional identity, linked to the redefined identity clause after the Lisbon Treaty. In this sense, the identity clause in Article 4(2) TEU has become the legal device or standard that is able to transfer the constitutional needs of the Member States to the level of EU law and provide the possibility for their recognition at EU level. For this to work, a cooperative approach by national constitutional courts seems essential.

Pope Leo XIII’s Legacy in European Union Law

Simon Tamás — 2024-05-30

The principle of subsidiarity, which also appeared in antiquity, was refined and perfected by the Catholic Church. The essence of the principle of subsidiarity is to ensure that decision-making takes place as close as possible to the individuals, thus avoiding unnecessary centralisation and encouraging effective decentralisation. The rationale behind this principle is the recognition that higher levels of government do not always have an adequate level of insight or understanding of local realities, and that decision-making should therefore be taken at the lowest possible level of authority to achieve the best quality of governance.
The principle of subsidiarity is a fundamental principle of the European Union’s decision-making system. A return to subsidiarity can play an important role in the constitutional disputes that have been revived in recent years between national constitutional courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union. This paper analyses the evolution of the subsidiarity principle in EU decision-making and the institutions and procedures that are supposed to guarantee its application. By examining the political and legal enforceability of the principle of subsidiarity, the paper draws conclusions on the present state of the enforcement of the principle and makes some proposals for the future.

The Case of Implied External Powers – The History of Pragmatism in the EU’s External Relations Law

Budai Péter — 2024-05-30

EU external relations law is not very much at the centre of the Hungarian EU legal discourse, so the matter of implied external competences may seem almost mystical. However, it is not mysterious at all, its development is rather evidence of the presence of pragmatism in the development of EU law, as the implied external powers were even used to extend competences in the period of the EEC. The aim the paper is to show how this pragmatism has been manifested from time to time in the development of the implied external competences. To do so, the paper also draws on Sinclair’s theory, who sees the phenomenon of the expansion of powers in the law of international organisations as a coherent process in some cases. Accordingly, the article describes case C-22/70. Commission v. Council (ERTA), including the main arguments made in the case, and the relevant circumstances as well. This is followed by the explanation of the expansion of the implied powers to highlight the appearance of its different aspects involved. Finally, the paper points out a “dialogue” that has been developed between the Member States and the Court of Justice during the process of the Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon reforms.

The Potential Indirect Impact of the European Citizens’ Initiative on EU Legislation

Csibor Ferenc — 2024-05-30

The EU re-authorisation of glyphosate, the active substance used in plant protection products, has once again highlighted the issues and problems associated with the active substance in 2023. The main source of tension is that the active substance was classified as a potential carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015, but the EU’s competent agencies have not identified any reasons for banning the active substance. Despite calls from civil society for removing glyphosate from the internal market, the European Commission has refused to ban the substance from the internal market. The aim of this paper is to present in more detail the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) to ban glyphosate and the Commission’s response to the initiative. The European Citizens’ Initiative is a legal instrument that gives EU citizens the opportunity to express their will on a specific issue or policy question. Thus, through the citizens’ initiative, it is possible to channel the demands of EU citizens into the legislative process. An analysis of the measures taken in response to the initiative, that aimed to ban glyphosate shows that an ECI can not only have a direct impact, but can also have an indirect trigger effect in terms of getting the Commission to pay attention to an important issue. The result of this indirect trigger effect may be that, after a longer period of time, the Commission finally initiates legislation on the subject of a particular ECI.