Fidesz MEP László Trócsányi said in an article published in Wednesday’s Magyar Nemzet that confrontations between the European Union’s institutions and those of member states were predictable as “the balance outlined in the EU treaties have been upset” and the EU is “showing tendencies that institutions of the individual member states reject”.
Trócsányi, Hungary’s former justice minister, wrote an analysis on the German constitutional court’s ruling rejecting a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the European Central Bank’s economic stimulus package, which Germany said violated “German constitutional identity”.
Trócsányi said the role of the European Council comprising the member states’ heads of state and government, was losing its weight. The European Commission, on the other hand, often “grinds down member states’ opposition” and forces its decisions on them, he said. Those decisions often seem to seek a “stealthy expansion” of EU competencies, he said, as if the EU institutions had forgotten that the member states are “lords of the treaties.” The constitutional institutions of member states, however, are starting to “develop a defence mechanism” against the EU’s centralisation efforts, Trócsányi said. One such reaction was the German constitutional court’s ruling, in line with other efforts to keep European institutions under the member states’ control, he said. At a time “determined by economic, migration and health crises”, a series of confrontations seems likely, Trócsányi said. The EU institutions’ primary role should be coordinating member states’ responses to those challenges, he said.
MTI
