“Wo Sind EUre Werte?”

Against the backdrop of flight, migration and dying at the EU’s external borders, this chapter discusses the practical implications of including values in European treaties. In doing so, the chapter first rejects the skeptical assumption that replacing talk of principles with talk of values in EU treaties is either just ornamental or opens the door to political arbitrariness. In a second step, it is then shown how the relationship between values and action orientation, axiology and prescriptivity can be conceived so that non-arbitrary normative requirements result. The chapter concludes with a very critical assessment of the actual orientation of EU policy towards its own values.