Article 7 TEU provides a process whereby the Union institutions, on a reasoned proposal by one-third of the Member States, may determine that there is a ‘clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of one of the values referred to in Article 2’. These values of course include the rule of law and the protection of human rights. If there is a ‘serious and persistent breach’, there is a further procedure to be followed. However, this legal route has so far proved utterly ineffective in terms of responding to constitutional developments, particularly concerning judicial independence, in some Member States, particularly Hungary and Poland, which threaten rule of law and human rights protection. Rather than using Article 7 TEU, the Commission has relied on Article 19 TEU, which obliges Member States to ‘provide remedies sufficient to ensure effective legal protection in the fields covered by Union law’.