The Crisis in the European Union?
UCM in Trnava, Faculty of Social Sciences
The article provides a conceptual framework for analyzing current discussions in crisis areas that appear on the international scene. The European Union is currently confronted with a number of challenges that have a major impact on its functioning. The primary problem seems to be a contradiction between the national and supranational principles. Some Member States are critical of the European Commission’s efforts to cumulate more and more decision-making powers on its hands and to exaggerate (or even absolutize) the supranational principle. This policy raises conflicts of competence between Brussels (primarily the European Commission) and some Member States, defending the national principle. This contradiction between the national and supranational principles is now taking up an ideological dimension, which seems to be one of the sources of the current European Union crisis. Its concrete manifestations are not only the rise of authoritarian attitudes of Hungary, but also the efforts of Hungary and Poland to strengthen the national principle. For this reason, there are also doubts about the functioning of the rule of law not only in Hungary and Poland, but also in the European Union as a whole. The criticism of the current political practice in Brussels is a sign that the European Union is facing the necessity of its reform. The aim of this article is to point out the reasons for the ideological crisis or the liberal crisis in the European Union.
