The COVID-19 human pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge to the European Union and its Member States. Ordinary solutions and traditional approaches have manifestly proven inadequate.

The Hungarian Ministry of Justice prepared a comparative chart on the constitutional and legal background of the extraordinary measures taken in relation to the COVID 19 outbreak in EU Member States. The intention was not to question and judge solutions adopted by Member States but to understand the framework in which they operate.

The chart has been circulated among Member States and a number of comments and suggestions have been included in the final version.

The exercise clearly shows not only the great variety of approaches adopted depending on the constitutional traditions of the respective Member States but also the feasibility of such intergovernmental peer review mechanism and its operation in practice.

(Ministry of Justice)