Unia Europejska jako wspólnota wartości
European Union as a Community of Values

Summary/Abstract: Any society organized in the from of a state is formed at the basis of certain values common to all its members, or at least to the vast majority of them. This involves exerting infl uence on the sense of identity and continuity of society. EU law emphasizes the role of values as the foundation of the existence of the Union. After the ratifi cation of the Lisbon Treaty there is a growing interest amongst individual countries in common European values. This phenomenon can also be found in Poland and, recently, there have been attempts to describe it. In the practice of the functioning of the EU the question of values plays an increasingly important role, but no mechanisms aimed at ensuring observance of them have been yet developed. The absence of a single system of values underlying the EU identity, both in relation to their detailed list and interpretation, is associated with the ambiguity of the relationship between the system of values protected by EU law and the internal systems of the Member States. This may have two kinds of consequences: either may lead to taking action by the institutions and bodies of the EU in all cases where there is doubt as to entrust the settlement of a case to the national authorities, or — in the event of such doubt — the decision on the case will be, in general, left to the Member State. The fi rst option, which seems more likely, will mean a de facto extension of the EU competences.

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