No precise connection can be established between the CJEU’s case law on the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and the one based on judicial cooperation with constitutional courts in countries not experiencing immediate threats to democracy. However, the paper suggests that constitutional courts should offer virtuous examples in interpreting primacy of EU law. Recent rulings of the Italian Constitutional Court in the field of social security are proposed as efforts to search common words and enhance common interpretative criteria in the framework of art. 267 TFEU. Building trust among institutions fortifies a common meaning of values, as they are stipulated in art. 2 TEU.
