La protezione dello Stato di diritto nel sistema dell’Unione europea: cosa resta da fare?

During the last fifteen years, a deterioration of the respect for the EU’s common values and in particular for the rule of law (Art. 2 TUE) occurred in several Member States. At the EU level, various – hard and soft law – instruments have been introduced and/or applied to foster compliance with the EU common values enshrined in Article 2 TUE, such as (i) the European Commission Rule of Law Annual Report, (ii) the Council’s peer review system, (iii) the mechanism based of Article 7 TUE, (iv) infringement procedures (Art. 258 TFUE), (v) preliminary rulings (Art. 267 TFUE), (vi) the principle of mutual trust, (vii) the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism (Regulation 2020/2092) and annulment actions (art. 263 TFUE). Following the analysis of the results achieved through the use of this diverse toolbox by the EU institutions and by the civil society (or, rather, judicial community), this article will focus on the interplay between these different instruments and on the opportunity to provide further avenues to promote and enforce EU common values.