Europe's Crisis of Values

Abstract

This contribution outlines the special features of the Rule of Law crisis of the European Union which started in Hungary. It argues that the crisis of values is the first systemic challenge to the very essence of the process of European integration since the foundation of the project. The key features of the crisis are analyzed as well as the reasons that led to the crisis, focusing not only on the EU’s powerlessness to resolve it in terms of procedures and enforcement, but also on the justice void, which looms beyond the internal market, making EU’s substantive involvement – indispensable for the successful resolution of the crisis – overwhelmingly difficult. The main point is very simple: the crisis of values is something new and its importance should be realized in full, as it corrupts the core assumptions about the EU indispensable for Europe’s successful functioning.

Keywords: rule of law, EU law, values, crisis