The European Union (EU) is based on the inclusive core values of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights enshrined in article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union. If there is a risk that these values are systematically threatened within a member state or when breaches are a fact, the EU may act by applying legal and political mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the problem with EU member states abandoning the democratic principles in favor of the illiberal, as exemplified by a case study on Hungary whose constitution and national identity are based on exclusionary values, which consequently has implications for human rights. The main focus of the thesis is the article 7 procedure which has a sanctioning mechanism that may result in the member state concerned being wholly or partly deprived of its voting rights in the Council of the European Union. Article 7 has been criticized for being ineffective and too political. In September 2018, the European Parliament adopted a resolution which activated the preventive mechanism of the procedure against Hungary which is about deciding whether there is a risk of breaches of article 2. The main ambition of the study is to discuss to what extent article 7 can protect the EU's core values. For these purposes, a jurisprudence method that examines EU law has been applied and, through a political science approach, the application of article 7 against Hungary has been investigated. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the procedure, a field study trip was made to the European Parliament in Brussels, where interviews were conducted with people with insight into the work of Parliament and the Council. I was also given the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament, in which representatives of the European Commission and the European Union Council also participated. The theme for the discussion was the article 7 procedure against Hungary. The findings of the survey show that, due to the political nature, article 7 is not sufficiently capable of protecting the fundamental values of the EU. What is needed is a new independent mechanism to review all member states' compliance with democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ths-250 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Svensson Dunberg, Paula |
| Publisher | Enskilda Högskolan Stockholm, Avdelningen för mänskliga rättigheter och demokrati |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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