There is little doubt that Brussels wants to constitutionalise many issues and take control away from state governments, imposing a more uniform approach decided at the centre by a combination of the European Commission and the European Court of Justice. A couple of lawsuits announced last week by the European Commission against two of its own member states provide a good indication of the way things are moving.
The first is against Hungary. A year or so ago, the elected government in Budapest passed a law restricting public distribution of material aimed at minors that displayed or promoted deviation from one’s birth gender identity, gender reassignment or homosexuality. Called on to repeal it immediately by the great and the good in Brussels (not to mention apparatchiks from the UN and other international organisations), Budapest instead doubled down and said the will of the Hungarian people should prevail.
It now faces infringement proceedings from Brussels demanding its abrogation. These allege, apart from technical breaches of e-commerce and audiovisual services law, that the law is unnecessary for the protection of youth and, importantly, that by retaining it Hungary is illegally acting in breach of European values as laid down in Article 2 of the EU Treaty.
The other lawsuit is aimed at Poland. Long at loggerheads with Brussels over a complaint by the latter that Poland’s rules on domestic judicial appointments are not EU-compliant (the details are toe-curlingly boring and you will be spared them here), Poland’s government last October obtained a ruling from its Constitutional Tribunal that if push came to shove EU law could not prevail over the Polish constitution. However much the European Court of Justice might huff and puff in Brussels, and whatever the EU treaties might say, in Warsaw or Krakow Polish judges had in the end to follow the Polish constitution from which they obtained their powers.
thecritic.co.uk
The first is against Hungary. A year or so ago, the elected government in Budapest passed a law restricting public distribution of material aimed at minors that displayed or promoted deviation from one’s birth gender identity, gender reassignment or homosexuality. Called on to repeal it immediately by the great and the good in Brussels (not to mention apparatchiks from the UN and other international organisations), Budapest instead doubled down and said the will of the Hungarian people should prevail.
It now faces infringement proceedings from Brussels demanding its abrogation. These allege, apart from technical breaches of e-commerce and audiovisual services law, that the law is unnecessary for the protection of youth and, importantly, that by retaining it Hungary is illegally acting in breach of European values as laid down in Article 2 of the EU Treaty.
The other lawsuit is aimed at Poland. Long at loggerheads with Brussels over a complaint by the latter that Poland’s rules on domestic judicial appointments are not EU-compliant (the details are toe-curlingly boring and you will be spared them here), Poland’s government last October obtained a ruling from its Constitutional Tribunal that if push came to shove EU law could not prevail over the Polish constitution. However much the European Court of Justice might huff and puff in Brussels, and whatever the EU treaties might say, in Warsaw or Krakow Polish judges had in the end to follow the Polish constitution from which they obtained their powers.
The EU’s appetite for power | Andrew Tettenborn | The Critic Magazine
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