Earlier today, Prime Minister Orbán signed a government decree that welcomes the decision the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Poland on the relationship between national law and European Union law. The PM called on the European Union institutions to respect the limits of the sovereignty of the Member States in their operations, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister's press chief, announced on Saturday.
The decree of the Hungarian government states the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Poland was prompted by bad practice of the European Union institutions, which disregards the principle of subsidiarity and seeks to deprive the rights of the Member States, rights never conferred to the European Union, by stealthy extension of powers without amending the Treaties of the European Union.
The primacy of EU law can take precedence only in areas where the European Union has competence, the framework of which is laid down in the Treaties of the European Union, as they wrote.
As Gergely Gulyás, the minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, observed: European institutions are attempting to misinterpret the clear decision handed down by the Polish Constitutional Court. According to Gulyás, the debate is not about whether EU law has primacy over national law, but about the areas where it does have.
The decree puts emphasis on the duty of the European Union institutions to respect the national identities of the Member States, which form an integral part of their fundamental political and constitutional order. In addition to the European Union institutions, the law enforcement bodies of the Member States, in particular the constitutional courts and tribunals, are entitled to examine the scope and limits of the European Union's competences.
In the decree signed by PM Orbán, the Hungarian government calls on the European Union institutions to respect the limits of the sovereignty of the Member States in their operations, the press chief explained.
The following is the full text of the decree:
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Government decision
No. 1712/2021 (of 9 October)
on the Hungarian position to be taken in connection with the decision
of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Poland
on the relationship between national law and European Union law
1. The Government of Hungary welcomes the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Poland on the relationship between national law and European Union law.
2. The Government of Hungary, in accordance with the decision referred to in point 1, hereby states that
a) the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Poland was provoked by the bad practice of the institutions of the European Union, which does not respect the principle of conferral of competence and, by means of a creeping extension of competencies without amending the founding Treaties of the European Union, seeks to deprive the Member States of competences that the Member States have never conferred on the European Union;
b) Union law can take precedence only in areas where the European Union has competence, the framework for which is laid down in the founding Treaties of the European Union;
c) the institutions of the European Union shall respect the national identity of Member States, inherent in their fundamental political and constitutional structures;
d)besides the institutions of the European Union, national law enforcement bodies - in particular constitutional courts and courts - are also empowered to examine the scope and limits of competencies of the European Union.
3. The Government calls on the Minister of Justice to communicate the position of the Government of Hungary to the European Union’s Member States and institutions.
Responsible: Minister of Justice
Deadline: immediately
4. The Government calls on the European Union institutions to respect the limits of Member States’ sovereignty in the course of their functioning.