The Amendment of Member States’ Constitutions in Relation to the EU Legal Order and Constitutional Identity, With a Special View on the Romanian Experience

The European Union’s constitutional order and identity are heavily reliant upon amending Member States’ Constitutions. It is essential that these amendments be designed with careful consideration, as they have a direct impact on the functioning and stability of the European Union. This study proposes an analysis from the perspectives of both the compatibility of the European Union legal order with the Member States’ Constitutions and the compatibility of the amendments of the Member States’ Constitutions with the European Union order. Its primary aim is to examine whether European Union accession and the values that make up the core of the common legal order constitute an implicit limit to the amendment of national constitutions and how they interfere or integrate with national constitutionalism. By emphasising the interaction between the constitutional foundations of the Member States and the European Union itself, this study aims to create a reflective perspective on the hybrid character of the ‘cornerstone’ of Member States’ Constitutions, which seems to have continuous and irreversible plasticity, influenced by the definition that common values acquire at various times. This plasticity is directly influenced by the way constitutional courts interpret these values, which has significant consequences for the evolution of the European Union as a structure of States.