Impeachment as Constitutional Weapon: A Role for Individual Officeholder Responsibility in Upholding European Union Values in the Rule of Law Crisis?

Abstract For over a decade the EU has experienced a rule of law crisis characterised by, inter alia , attacks on judicial independence at national level by some Member State governments. This crisis represents an existential one for the EU owing to the Union’s functioning as a multi-level, intertwined legal order being dependent on respect for the rule of law at national level. This article asks whether impeachment, as an accountability mechanism focussed on members of the European Commission (the institution tasked with ensuring compliance with the EU Treaties), could be used to assist in upholding values including the rule of law, where these have been breached at supranational level, whether by acts of commission or omission, i.e., failing to respond adequately to rule-of-law breaches at national level. After briefly describing the EU’s rule of law crisis, the article identifies gaps in EU accountability as it pertains to breaches of EU values at supranational level, whether done by acts or omissions. Thereafter, the article considers how EU impeachment is conceptualised and whether it could be operationalised against individual members of the European Commission who commit breaches of EU values. The article concludes that EU impeachment is conceptualised as a blunt single-sided sword, designed to address criminal or corrupt individual officeholder conduct rather than policy actions/inactions or other behaviours that might harm or threaten EU values.