Prof. Dr. András Zs. Varga, President of the Curia of Hungary and Dr. Judit Gyarmathy, Secretary General of the Curia of Hungary participated, on 3 May 2024, at the jubilee conference of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg. The event commemorated the 20th anniversary of the accession of ten Member States, including Hungary, to the European Union.
In his speech delivered at the conference’s working session on common European values, Prof. Dr. András Zs. Varga examined the roots of a common European identity and highlighted that “both the heritage of the imperial Rome and the heritage of the sovereignty-based Westphalia belong to us. We cannot reverse the flow of time to rebuild imperial Rome without abandoning Westphalia. And we cannot reverse the flow of time absolutely to Westphalia without abandoning the community of Rome”.
In his presentation, the Hungarian Chief Justice has underlined that the enforcement of common values is not the prerogative of Union bodies, but is carried out by national authorities and courts in the vast majority of cases. The national courts are in the best position to ensure that the Union’s values and objectives are upheld in the most effective way. In order to ensure common values in the long run, we must tolerate a situation where national specificities prevail to a certain extent during the implementation of the EU’s objectives and rules.
Prof. Dr. András Zs. Varga has explained that, as judges, one cannot forget the central role of the principles of constitutionality and of the rule of law. The Court of Justice of the European Union plays a prominent role in ensuring solidarity and mutual respect between the Member States by being vigilant not only in upholding EU values and objectives, but also in safeguarding the national autonomy of Member States, which is guaranteed by the national competences and legitimately divergent approaches of the Member States. The Court of Justice of the European Union is obliged to point out the limits of EU powers and the scope of EU law, too, as it has done on numerous occasions so far.
Prof. Dr. András Zs. Varga has concluded his speech with the thought that the Court of Justice of the European Union is able to defend effectively the Union’s pluralism and the principle of subsidiarity within the framework of the Treaties, while the supreme courts of the Member States are able to ensure the uniform application of EU law according to the criteria set by the Court of Justice of the European Union and to interpret national law taking into account also the EU values and objectives.
During the working session’s discussions, the President of the Curia, in response to a question, pointed out that there was nothing special about the fact that, in 2004, a number of countries with the experience of authoritarian regimes in their more recent past also joined the European Union. This has been a feature of the European Communities, and later of the European Union, since their foundation. The greatness of the European idea lies precisely in the fact that the European countries have been able to reconcile their different experiences. In the case of Hungary and the other acceding countries of Central Europe, the 14 years elapsed between their change of regime and their EU accession had been a busy period of work: on the one hand, they had to rebuild their own traditional legal systems and, on the other hand, they had to integrate the latest results of European legal development.
Answering the question, addressed to the working session’s rapporteurs, of what they would do differently if time could be reversed, President Varga replied that they would pay more attention to the process of preparing the Constitutional Treaty, in addition to the accession negotiations, as the results of the Constitutional Treaty’s preparation were 99% reflected in the Lisbon Treaty. In his personal view, attention should also have been paid to training judges not only in the application of European law and in the mandatory taking into account of the judicial interpretation of the Court of Justice of the European Union, but also in the application of the case-law of the national constitutional and supreme courts in respect of domestic law.
Prof. Dr. András Zs. Varga’s solemn speech can be viewed in full on the Kúria Média YouTube channel.
Budapest, 3 May 2024
The Communications Department of the Curia of Hungary
