Authors

Ilina Cenevska¹;  ¹ Faculty of Law, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, North Macedonia

Discussion

This contribution will examine the argument surrounding protection of national identity which has underpinned the relationship between the European Union and its Member States from the Central and Eastern European region - especially in recent years. Hungary, Poland and Czechia have been known to invoke the so-called national identity clause of Article 4(2) of the Treaty on European Union (establishing the EU’s duty to respect the national identities of its Member States) in order to justify actions at the national level that run counter to the rules and fundamental principles of EU law.

The analysis will provide insight into the practical applications of the national identity clause, with particular attention to some more recent legal cases before the EU Court of Justice and the national constitutional courts which serve as a fitting illustration of the practice of raising the national identity plea. In the cases in question, Hungary, Poland and Czechia, respectively, have relied on the national identity clause to validate national legislation and practices that depart from the EU principles of democracy and rule of law as well as the rules on EU citizenship as these flow from the Union’s Treaties and secondary law.

Based on the foregoing analysis, the contribution will reflect on the boundaries of these countries' discretion to employ national identity arguments in order to derogate from the primacy of EU legal rules and principles and will address the existence of a sometimes-fluid dividing line between legitimate use and misuse of national identity claims (whereby the arguments are used as a pretext rather than an actual justification).