Articles

Constitutional Foundations of EU Membership in Hungary Before and After the new Fundamental Law

Published:
2015-07-07
Author
View
Keywords
How To Cite
Selected Style: APA
Fazekas, F. (2015). Constitutional Foundations of EU Membership in Hungary Before and After the new Fundamental Law. Pro Futuro, 5(1), 29-47. https://doi.org/10.26521/Profuturo/2015/1/5443
Abstract

The paper examines the Hungarian constitutional framework which determines the relationship between domestic and EU law. The constitutional foundations changed in 2011 when the new constitution, the Fundamental Law was adopted. The former 1989 Constitution contained in Article 2/A the so-called ’European clause’ adopted before EU accession, which was referred to as the main constitutional basis of Hungary’s EU membership by the Constitutional Court. The new Fundamental Law contains a seemingly similar ’European clause’ in Article E. The paper scrutinizes the question whether the former and the new clauses are truly similar and concludes that opposite to the Constitutional Court’s point of view the new European clause should be interpreted differently from the former, which might lead to a different, less Europe-friendly approach towards EU membership.