Op-Ed: “Not only Fico: Mobilising National Constitutional Law against EU Primacy”

The principle of primacy of European Union law is becoming a core element of European political debates. The recent constitutional reform in Slovakia is just the latest episode. The amendment establishes that, within the Slovak legal system, there are only two sexes—male and female—while also restricting adoption to heterosexual couples and prohibiting surrogate pregnancies. The reform includes a provision granting Slovak national law precedence over EU law in ‘in matters of national identity, consisting mainly of fundamental cultural and ethical issues’, thus challenging the principle of primacy of European Union law. The principle of primacy plays a structuring role in the process of European integration. In a nutshell, it establishes