Minister Bóka reacted to the CJEU’s decision to uphold the European Commission’s case against Poland, in which the court declared that the Polish Constitutional Tribunal cannot be regarded as an independent and impartial court under EU law. According to the Hungarian minister, this ruling goes far beyond the European Union’s competences.
“First and foremost, it must be made clear that assessing the composition and functioning of a national constitutional court does not fall within the competence of the European Union,” Minister Bóka emphasized. He stressed that the design and operation of a country’s constitutional institutional system is an exclusive national responsibility, rooted in the constitutional order of each member state.
In his assessment, the CJEU’s decision marks a qualitative shift. When an EU court calls into question the legitimacy of a national constitutional court, Minister Bóka argued, it is no longer engaged in legal interpretation. “At that point, it is carrying out an constitutional coup,” he wrote, accusing the court of gravely exceeding the powers conferred on it by the EU treaties.
The minister described the ruling as particularly alarming because it seeks to override the constitutional identity of member states by invoking the primacy of EU law. In his view, this reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of roles and a deliberate disregard for the balance of competences laid down in the founding treaties of the European Union.
Minister Bóka warned that if EU institutions are allowed to unilaterally redefine the limits of their own authority, the principle of shared sovereignty within the Union is hollowed out. Such decisions, he said, undermine trust between member states and weaken the foundations of cooperation that the EU is supposed to be built upon.
He also linked the ruling to broader concerns about institutional overreach in Brussels. According to Minister Bóka, this is precisely why Hungary has launched a comprehensive review of European Union competences. The goal of this process, he explained, is to clearly delineate where EU authority ends and where national sovereignty begins.
“If there is no clear boundary between member state sovereignty and EU competences, then in the end there is no genuine European cooperation,” Minister Bóka stated. “There is only empire-building.”
In closing, the minister made it clear that Hungary views the protection of constitutional identity as a central issue in the future of the European Union. Respect for national constitutional structures, he argued, is not an obstacle to European integration but a prerequisite for it. Without mutual respect for the limits set by the treaties, Minister Bóka concluded, the European project risks losing its legitimacy in the eyes of its member states and their citizens.