The importance of the rule of law within the European Union. The case of Hungary and Poland

Abstract

The European Union (the EU) is built upon the idea of the rule of law. Upholding the principle is a necessary condition for the Member States as well as applicant states of the EU. Since 2014, the EU’s political institutions have been working on strengthening the rule of law. As a result, the institutions have created a toolbox of various actions that the EU is authorized to use in order to help the Member States to uphold the rule of law. Since Hungary’s and Poland’s constitutional breakdowns in 2010 and 2015, the rule of law has been under a systematic threat. The EU has used its toolbox of political actions against the two countries, and when they have failed, EU’s legal institutions have stepped in. The aim of this thesis is to try to shed a light on the importance of the rule of law within the EU and to discuss whether the rule of law is the EU’s political or a legal tool. The argument of the thesis is that the rule of law is very important to the EU as a political value and the EU’s actions against the breach of the rule of law are underdeveloped but have the potential to become effective. The main findings suggest that the EU is proportionate when performing its legal and political actions against its Member States, as it has shown in the case study of Hungary and Poland.