The European Union as a ‘human rights organisation’

Abstract

After the entry into force of Lisbon Treaty (2009), the European Union set a high standard of respect for fundamental rights within the EU. However national authorities of EU Member States acting outside the scope of EU law were left almost free to decided on their own fundamental rights standards. The example of Hungary showed that democracy that is inseparable from the respect for fundamental rights can’t not be taken for guaranteed. Even in 21st century the EU Member State can attempt to turn to authoritarianism by restricting fundamental rights through the legislative changes. Therefore the objective of this thesis is to examine what kind of measure are available at EU level that could prevent internal fundamental rights violations from occurring at the same time safeguarding democracy in its Member States. Taking Hungary as the test case study, the thesis will examine how effective are currently available EU tools. After presuming that they have just a very narrow practical impact on internal fundamental rights violations, the thesis will propose new far-reaching EU mechanism, which could be developed from the EU Treaties and exercised by the Court of Justice of European Union. This proposal will be based on the recent case law of the Court, that shows the Court’s attempt to wider fundamental rights policy