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The EU faces one of the deepest crises since its formation. A dangerous rule of law backsliding in several Member States undermines the Union’s common values and puts Europe to the test. This raises the question of how to substantially address violations of EU values in judicial proceedings before the Court of Justice. Unfortunately, relying on fundamental freedoms, EU secondary legislation and even the Charter will not help much to resolve this value crisis. This Article takes a different path and calls for engaging with Article 2 TEU itself. Yet this proposal rests on a crucial premise: The judicial applicability of the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU. Based on recent jurisprudential developments, this Article will elaborate a framework for the operationalization of Article 2 TEU values and demonstrate how their judicial applicability can be construed. The judgments of Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses, Minister for Justice and Equality (“L.M.”) and Commission v. Poland will be at the heart of this proposal.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2017 2(1), 141-157 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction: one or many faces of mutual trust in European integration? - II. The (slow but steady) emergence of a temperate mutual trust in the AFSJ: considerations from N.S., Aranyosi and C.K. - III. "Only You". Why only a temperate understanding of mutual trust is in harmony with the European constitutional framework? - III.1. The enforcement of mutual recognition instruments and national courts' 'retail business' dilemma. - III.2. The relevance of general principles of EU in relation to the enforcement and the effectiveness of secondary EU law: lessons from Berlusconi and Caronna. - III.3. Squaring the circle: the morphologies of mutual trust in European integration. - IV. Conclusions: the benefits of temperate mutual trust for the EU's composite constitutional order. | (Abstract) This Article aims at inquiring on the relation between mutual trust and fundamental rights in the functioning of mutual recognition instruments with special reference to EU constitutionalism, suggesting the emergence of and the need to frame a 'temperate' vision of mutual trust. After the introduction, highlighting the focal moments of the success of mutual trust in European integration process, the Article discusses the emergence of a more temperate interpretation of mutual trust by the CJEU. It then discusses these developments in the constitutional framework of the EU, suggesting with a three-tier argumentation that only a temperate declination of mutual trust can fit the composite constitutional framework of the EU in a harmonious fashion, while at the same time guaranteeing the enforcement of the mutual recognition instruments it aims to support.

The EU faces one of the deepest crises since its formation. A dangerous rule of law backsliding in several Member States undermines the Union's common values and puts Europe to the test. This raises the question of how to substantially address violations of EU values in judicial proceedings before the Court of Justice. Unfortunately, relying on fundamental freedoms, EU secondary legislation and even the Charter will not help much to resolve this value crisis. This Article takes a different path and calls for engaging with Article 2 TEU itself. Yet this proposal rests on a crucial premise: The judicial applicability of the values enshrined in Article 2 TEU. Based on recent jurisprudential developments, this Article will elaborate a framework for the operationalization of Article 2 TEU values and demonstrate how their judicial applicability can be construed. The judgments of Associação Sindical dos Juízes Portugueses , Minister for Justice and Equality ("L.M.") and Commission v. Poland will be at the heart of this proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]