La adhesión a la Unión Europea y la obligación permanente de cumplimiento de los valores democráticos

Abstract

The current article suggests focusing the study of unfulfillment of the values welcomed by article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) by Central and Eastern European States (CEECs), the origins of such duty, that is to say, on the acquired commitment during the accession procedure of these States. Thus, while in previous amendments, the fulfillment of political criteria legislation and law pairing the acquis communitaire were taken for granted, such case as that of Central and Eastern European States treated their accession as if it was an unavoidable political issue and its adaptation to political criteria was penned in a very programatic way without paying particular attention to its formal implications in the long run, particularly such which affect article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union. Although the values welcomed in the current article shape European identity and are present in several primary laws which comprise the previously mentioned political criteria, such values have not only been specifically framed in EU laws, but it is also such unfulfillment which has been the target of the most doctrine and jurisprudence. Such lack of development entails the difficulty to establish particular tools which guarantee its enforceability, and that contrasts with the importance that values have in accession policy, mainly based on fulfillment of values together with the content of articles 2, 6.1 y 49 TEU. Such lack of controls, replaced mainly by political actions by the EU has had an impact on the obligatoriness of a particular model of respect to the values in article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union by such States which have lived the possibility to add up new ways to interact with EU institutions. Therefore, the current piece of work pleads to set the beginning of the duty to meet such values back to accession process, so as to tell if they which make the organisation’s identity are, in fact, accession requirements required on a permanent basis or mere obstacles to become a member.