Articles for category: Europa

Investing Immobilized Russian Assets, Monetarizing the Common Foreign and Security Policy

Again, the Commission and EU Member States are talking about new sanctions against Russia. The focus, according to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, should be on tackling sanctions circumvention and loopholes. In a scoop, however, it was also uncovered that the Commission has drawn up a non-paper “on the generation of resources to support Ukraine from immobilized Russian assets”. The idea behind this non-paper is to invest the immobilized assets of the Russian Central Bank in EU Member States’ bonds and bills and use the proceeds to support the reconstruction of Ukraine. The plan, as the non-paper indicates, is fraught with a number of legal and technical issues. These do not only relate to the question of whether or not such an investment of immobilized assets is compatible with international law and EU law, but also to the question of who should undertake and oversee these investments.

25. April 2023

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Achmea Goes to Washington

Recently, a US District Court trashed a Dutch company's arbitral award against Spain. Why? Because investor-state arbitration within the EU violates European law. Yet, many tribunals keep issuing arbitral awards - especially under the infamous Energy Charta Treaty. Challenging those awards in domestic courts outside the EU, like here in Washington D.C., might work as corrective to the continuing illegal assumption of jurisdiction and blatant disregard for the EU Treaties by arbitral tribunals.

19. April 2023

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Closure and Continuity

Trade, sovereignty, rights and freedoms, courts, and constitutional change are lenses through which we can examine how two politically, culturally, and linguistically inextricably linked common law countries have defined their diverging relationship with the EU. 50 years on the divergence is complete. The UK is now a third country, charting a future outside the EU, while Ireland remains one of 27 Member States reporting high levels of trust and support for the EU. Hence 50 years on we have both the desire for closure (for the UK) and continuity (for Ireland). In fact, we argue that closure and continuity are necessary for the relations between both states and their relationship with the EU now and in the next half century.

19. April 2023

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New Digital Gates for Fortress Europe?

On March 29th, the Permanent Representatives Committee approved the EU Council's negotiating mandate for a Regulatory proposal to digitalize the Visa procedure. Proponents argue that this move will improve security and reduce administrative costs for both EU Member States and interested travellers. However, I argue that the Draft Regulation raises many concerns about the effective protection of the fundamental rights of Schengen visa applicants. If adopted, it threatens to perpetuate the subordination of fundamental rights to security and efficiency concerns that characterizes the increasing digitalization and datafication of EU migration management operations.

18. April 2023

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Attention Is All You Need

Das Verbot ChatGPTs durch die italienische Datenschutzbehörde bietet Gelegenheit einen Klassiker neu aufzulegen: Eine bahnbrechende, Technologie aus dem Silicon Valley zerschellt am harten Beton des Brüsseler Datenschutzregimes. Während einige technikkritische Stimmen laut applaudieren, prügeln andere auf das vermeintlich innovationsfeindliche Datenschutzrecht ein. Doch gibt ChatGPT tatsächlich Anlass für derart fundamentale datenschutzrechtliche Bedenken im Hinblick auf generative KIs?

14. April 2023

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Democracy, Sovereignty and Europe

Fifty years after Ireland and UK joined the EEC together in January 1973, the two states find themselves on radically different European trajectories. Both are common law countries with shared traditions of parliamentary governance and strong cultural links to the wider Anglosphere. However, in Ireland there is broad elite and popular support for maintaining alignment with the requirements of EU and ECHR law – while, in the UK, such European influences trigger a sharp allergic reaction. What explains this dramatic divergence? The answer perhaps lies partially in the differing ‘constitutional imaginaries’ of Ireland and the UK, and how EU and ECHR alignment is understood to impact on the exercise of popular sovereignty in both states.

12. April 2023

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Wie die EU durch das Spitzenkandidatensystem ihre illiberalen Regime in Ungarn und Polen bekämpfen könnte

Die Europäische Union scheint unfähig zu sein, gegen die illiberalen Regime in Polen und Ungarn erfolgreich vorzugehen. Dabei hält sich der Irrglaube, dass die EU keine rechtlichen Mittel zur Verfügung habe, um gegen diese undemokratischen Staaten anzukämpfen. Dies ist nicht der Fall. Die EU hat und hatte schon immer die nötigen Mittel zur Hand, die jedoch auch tatsächlich genutzt werden müssten. Der notwendige Schritt, um dies zu garantieren, ist so einfach wie wirksam. Die EU muss das Spitzenkandidatensystem für die Europäische Kommission wiedereinsetzen.

12. April 2023

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Short Detention, Long Shadow

Several videos show the arrest of Clara Ponsatí last Tuesday in the streets of Barcelona, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Separatist politicians have forcefully condemned the arrest as an ‘attack on democracy’, ‘political violence’, ‘repression’ and ‘abuse of power’, while also asserting an egregious violation of an MEP’s immunity. This piece argues that the arrest warrant issued by the Tribunal Supremo on 28 March 2023 does not hold up against established constitutional principles.

7. April 2023

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In Law as in Life?

On New Year’s Day in 2002, my late uncle, visiting us in Kerry at the time, walked to the local shop and came back with a pristine €5 note for everyone in the house. Spend it, keep it, do whatever you like with it; but this, he said, is history. Ireland adopting the euro as its currency marked one of the most significant divergent choices in the history of British and Irish membership of the European Union. The dense and complicated ties between the two states were otherwise reflected in so many ways across their EU membership profiles, from their coterminous application paths to shared exemptions from certain legal obligations.

4. April 2023

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