Values in front of the Court of Justice of the European Union

Organised by

• Department of Law

The European Union’s foundational values, enshrined in Article 2 TEU, have become increasingly prominent as legal tools in the fight against rule of law backsliding. Recent infringement proceedings, particularly the case against Hungary’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, mark a significant shift: for the first time, Article 2 of the TEU is argued by the Commission as a self-standing legal basis for infringement proceedings (case C-769/22). This development raises critical questions about how EU institutions concretely use values in legal proceedings and the implications of invoking ‘European values’ before the Court.

This roundtable will discuss these critical questions, in particular the following: How are ‘EU values’ concretely used as a legal instrument by the European institutions? What is the definition of such ‘EU values’? What kind of legal effects can they entail, to whom are they addressed and who shapes this definition? What is the added value of using EU values in proceedings for the protection of the rule of law before the Court of Justice? 

More information on RECLAIM’s activities can be found here: https://www.reclaiming.eu.