Articles for category: EU

Fast-Tracking Ukraine

Whatever the outcome of the current crisis, Ukraine needs to join the European Union as fast as possible. Neither Trump nor Putin can veto this. The EU, for long lukewarm about widening and deepening, must take rapid steps to facilitate Ukraine’s entry. This will involve revising the terms and conditions of accession. Although Volodymr Zelensky has seen EU membership as second best to NATO, he well knows that his country’s sovereignty now depends on the European Union. Enlargement is a geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability and prosperity.

3. März 2025

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The Dismissal of the Romanian Prosecutors Annulment Action

In the latest chapter of the EU rule of law saga, the General Court dismissed an annulment action lodged by an association of Romanian prosecutors, which challenged the termination of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism in 2023, due to lack of direct concern. We argue that a too-narrow view of the issue does not reflect the rule of law situation in the country, including open non-compliance with the CJEU’s own rulings, and leads to several undesired consequences.

27. Februar 2025

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The De-Regulatory Turn of the EU Commission

The current events in the US, especially the takeover of executive branches by the non-elected private citizen Elon Musk, left legal scholars and other constitutional experts in a state of shocked disbelief. From a European perspective, many consider such a development unthinkable. However, we should not be too certain about that. The current decision of the EU Commission to carry out a “de-regulatory turn” illustrates how strongly a technical innovation narrative – one that has contributed to the success of individuals like Musk and their corporate conglomerates – is catching on globally.

18. Februar 2025

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What Madonna Got and the EU Did Not

For the past three months, Serbian citizens have been actively protesting, demanding a shift from the rule by man to the one, governed by the rule of law. The protests followed the tragedy of November 1, 2024, when the recently renovated canopy of the railway station in Novi Sad collapsed and took 15 lives and severely injured 2 individuals. The Prime Minister has resigned, and massive protests are sweeping across the country. Meanwhile, the EU continues to prioritize regional stability over addressing the President’s abuse of power.

18. Februar 2025

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How the CJEU Should Supervise the Court of Arbitration for Sport

On 16 January 2025, AG Ćapeta rendered her Opinion in the Seraing case which could have profound effects for transnational governance of sports. AG Ćapeta highlights convincingly the specificities of CAS arbitration, its forced nature and peculiar private enforcement system. She concludes that CAS awards should be deprived of res judicata effect and subject to EU law review. I advocate for a less disruptive approach. Instead of a total devaluation of CAS awards, we should condition the recognition of their bindingness to their compliance with European public policy and fundamental due process rights.

18. Februar 2025

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Small Fry

Last week, the oral hearings in the EU-UK Sandeel case were concluded before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. This marks the first time in which a dispute between the EU and UK under the 2021 Trade and Co-operation agreement reaches the stage of arbitration, testing the post-Brexit legal framework in a case where the UK’s regulatory autonomy to adopt unilateral measures for the protection of the marine environment is pitted against the EU vessels’ right to access and fish in British waters.

6. Februar 2025

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Four Reasons Why Illiberal Politics Appropriated the Memory of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

In this contribution, I am analysing the reasons for the appropriation of the 1956 Hungarian revolution. I argue that these reasons are four-fold: First, the memory of 1956 has been divided from the start. Second, half of the population, namely women, were excluded from this memory. Third, the revolution was a bottom-up event. Fourth, the transition after 1990 was built on the concept of authenticity and truth made the narrative vulnerable to illiberal appropriation.

3. Februar 2025

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Diskriminierende Einstellung(sbedingungen)en

Das Landesarbeitsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg hat jüngst entschieden, dass eine Neutralitätsklausel im Arbeitsvertrag eine kopftuchtragende Muslimin diskriminiere, und dieser eine Entschädigung zugesprochen. Das Besondere an dem Fall: Das Gericht stellte eine Diskriminierung durch eine vertragliche Neutralitätsklausel fest, obwohl die Bewerberin die Stelle freiwillig nicht angetreten hatte. Das Urteil stärkt die Religionsfreiheit im AGG und zeigt, dass die EuGH-Entscheidungen zu betrieblichen Kopftuchverboten nuancierte Anwendung im jeweiligen mitgliedstaatlichen Kontext finden.

30. Januar 2025

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TikTok’s last dance

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“On January 19, we still have President Biden, and on January 19, as I understand it, we shut down.” With these words—foreshadowing the final ban of the TikTok app in the United States—Noel Francisco, legal representative of ByteDance, the Chinese parent company, addressed the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments on January 10, 2025. One week later, the Supreme Court issued its ruling: TikTok’s appeal was dismissed. The court’s reasoning merits examination, while the implications remain uncertain, particularly as a Trump executive order temporarily blocks the ban’s enforcement.

29. Januar 2025

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The Diversity of Legal Governance of Memory in Europe

Memory laws pose a set of distinct challenges for modern democracies, including in the realm of human rights law. In the four reports, conducted during the MEMOCRACY project, we took stock of the dynamics, trade-offs, and the effects of legal governance of historical memory in a region ridden with mnemonic conflicts. This contribution distils the most interesting comparative findings of the reports, namely the fact that the countries’ own and foreign experiences with totalitarianism are legally and politically approached very differently. On this basis, we sketch the consequences and challenges of these fundamental differences, both for the establishment of a “European memory” and the various states’ approaches to modern geopolitics.

28. Januar 2025

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