THE CONCEPT OF RULE OF LAW IN THE DOCUMENTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS (THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL) AND IN CASE-LAW OF THE CJEU

The article analyzes the concept of the rule of law in European Union law. This concept, known for a long time in treaties, has recently gained importance. It seems that two events were the turning points in the understanding of the rule of law in the EU legal order. The first, strictly legal, was the adoption and entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, which established today's Art. 2, which expressly expresses the rule of law as one of the principles on which the European Union is based. The second, this time political, were the results of elections in some Member States, the results of which, in the form of taking power or co-power by groups that were clearly anti-European or highly skeptical about the European Union project, were not liked by the EU left-liberal mainstream, which alternated power in countries such as Austria, and later to an even greater extent Hungary and Poland, was perceived as a threat to the a priori vision of permanently tightening integration.