From sanctions to prevention, and now back to sanctions? Article 7 TEU and the protection of the EU founding values

This chapter analyzes the EU procedures to sanction Member States' breaches of the Union founding values: democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. The key provision in this respect is Article 7 TEU, which allows the Council to impose sanctions against the Member State responsible of a 'serious and persistent breach' of the values. Originally introduced by the Treaty of Amsterdam, Article 7 was then amended in Nice with the addition of a preventive mechanism. Further preventive steps, including the adoption of the Rule of Law Framework, have been added over time by the EU institutions. After offering an overview of the Article 7 system and procedures, reflecting in particular on the type of sanctions that can be adopted by the Council, the chapter describes the shift in emphasis and attention from sanctioning to preventive and monitoring procedures. On the basis of an incorrect reading of the provision, Article 7 began to be considered a nuclear option, and the EU institutions preferred focusing on softer dialogical instruments. Only more recently, due to the constitutional crises in Hungary and Poland, Article 7 returned high on the agenda, and was actually activated for the first time, finally reacquiring its centrality in the EU's values-protection toolkit. Furthermore, the EU has strengthened parallel judicial responses to the challenges and is also developing other tools to sanction values-related breaches, such as the proposed new Regulation on Rule of Law conditionality. The chapter reflects on these recent steps and concludes that, while they can be positively assessed a more coordinated action is needed, better streamlining institutional efforts in the field and closely linking monitoring and sanctioning efforts.