HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

to the first question is that it is unlikely that the judges would defend human rights against the state, which appointed them. As far as the third question is concerned, I do not think that such a state would just accept a ruling, which would be against its interests. If the state is able to deconstruct a functioning political system and make it into “ illiberal constitutionalism ”, the same state would be prepared to ignore a ruling by the ECJ. As one can see, this approach is more of wishful thinking, than a realistic direction for the EU to follow. In short, a massive change of fundamental rights protection is not on the horizon, thus placing EU citizenship in a position that can bring alteration to the EU, although not a revolution. I even think that it is not the destiny of EU citizenship to do so. A radical change is not needed, rather a steady, but stable journey towards ensuring better protection of fundamental rights for its bearers. Conclusion The goal of this article was to dive into the story of EU citizenship and to shed some light on Chavez-Vilchez . During my journey there have emerged three crucial questions. Now, I would like to address them. The first one is: what rights does “the substance of the rights” encompass? As I have argued, I am sceptical about the “ Reverse Solange ” approach – it is possible to promote human rights, only if they are respected, not if they are systematically breached. But there is still potential to include more rights under the umbrella of this test. I agree with Kochenov that all rights enlisted in TFEU should be protected, and not only that – all corollary rights to them should be protected too 57 (i.e. you have a right to vote, you should have a right to free speech, because you need to be to be engaged in a meaningful political discussion). The reason is that citizens are firstly political actors 58 , who should be encouraged to actively engage in their community (that is the EU). In addition, I think the best way to give some flesh to the EU citizenship is to include all rights in the Charter that can be labelled “political rights or first-generation rights” 59 , since they are embedded in European cultural heritage and to compromise them is to deviate from shared European standard. 60 So, I am against narrow reading of these rights, limiting them to rights 57 KOCHENOV, D., MORIJN, J., ‘Strengthening the Charter’s Role in the Fight for the Rule of Law in the EU: The Cases of Judicial Independence and Party Financing’. 2021. 27, European Public Law, Issue 4, p. 759–780. Available at: https://kluwerlaw[online].com/journalarticle/European+Public+Law/27.4/ EURO2021037. p. 778-779. 58 LENAERTS, K. and GUTIÉRREZ-FONS, J. A. Epilogue on EU Citizenship: Hopes and Fears. In: EU Citizenship and Federalism. Cambridge University Press, 2017, p. 751–781. Available at: https://doi. org/10.1017/9781139680714.032. p. 762. 59 VAŠÁK, K. Human Rights: A Thirty-Year Struggle: the Sustained Efforts to give Force of law to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UNESCO Courier, 11:29–32. 1977. Available at: https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000048063. 60 To avoid fears of interferences with national identities, as expressed in LENAERTS, K., GUTIÉRREZ-

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