Member State Economic Patriotism and EU Law: Legitimate Regulatory Control Through Proportionality?

The policies developed by governments for the national economy and their implementation fall under far-reaching restrictions imposed by EU law. These follow from substantive legal provisions as well as from the legal principles of necessity and proportionality, the latter applied in the context of the Member States justifying the violation of their EU legal obligations by national policy instruments. This chapter investigates the legitimacy of subjecting patriotic Member State economic policies to the requirements arising from the principles of necessity and proportionality, especially those which demand that national measures meet certain regulatory qualities. In order to achieve this, it looks at patriotic economic developments in Hungary after 2010 and their subsequent treatment under EU law in the different avenues available for the enforcement of EU obligations.