The Identity of Union Law in Primacy: Piercing Through Euro Box Promotion and Others

The Grand Chamber's judgment of 21 December 2021 on rule of law deficits in Romania underlines the vulnerability of the Union's legal order. The facts of the case vividly demonstrate once again that its weak spot is spread across the national judicial systems of the Member States. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) opposes the developments by further strengthening the values while underlining special obligations Romania entered into upon accession. Of central importance beyond that are the Court's first additions to the long standing reasoning on Union Law's unrestricted primacy. The argumentation resembles a closing figure which is supposed to resolve the irreconcilable claims of final authority in favour of Union law. The attempt turns out to be unconvincing because the constitutional foundations of the integration process and its plurality of actors are selectively ignored.