Articles for tag: EU, Orbán, Viktor, Russischer Krieg gegen die Ukraine

Overcoming Objections to Overcome the Hungarian Veto

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This June, we proposed ways to overcome a Hungarian veto on EU sanctions against Russia. Our proposal prompted Mark Dawson and Martijn van den Brink to write a sharp response, arguing that we had ventured beyond the confines of serious legal scholarship into the realm of the fantastical. Our critics and we seem to live in different realities. When reading Dawson’s and van den Brink’s piece, it feels like the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine does not exist. Yet, there lies an uncomfortable truth at the heart of our proposal, one that our critics fail to recognize: the Russian war might grow into an existential threat to the European Union.

31. August 2025

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Lithium, Law, and the Limits of EU Sustainability

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In July 2024, the European Commission entered into a strategic partnership on critical raw materials with Serbia by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on sustainable raw materials and battery value chains. Three days before signing the MoU, the Serbian government had decided to renew the spatial plan for the realization of the “Jadar” project, which includes the exploitation of the mineral Jadarite in western Serbia. These two events have signaled the readiness of the Serbian regime to allow lithium mining in western Serbia and the EU’s commitment to exploit a source of critical raw material (CRM) in its neighborhood, particularly in the Western Balkans.

28. August 2025

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The Case for a Royal Commission on Britain and Europe

How much longer can Britain’s unstable relationship with the European Union be tolerated? While Prime Minister Keir Starmer vocally supports European unity regarding Ukraine, he denies it for his own country. Nearly ten years after the referendum, the costs of Brexit are rising, and public opinion is increasingly favouring closer ties with the EU. This post suggests that the current deadlock calls for a Royal Commission to overcome parliamentary paralysis, provide an evidence-based assessment of post-Brexit realities, and lay the groundwork for strategic decisions about the UK’s role in Europe.

22. August 2025

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Der Preis der Deeskalation

Mitten in einer transatlantischen Zollschlacht hat die Europäische Union einem US-Handelsdiktat zugestimmt, das einen drohenden Handelskrieg abwendet – und zugleich fundamentale verfassungsrechtliche Fragen aufwirft. Hat Brüssel aus Notwendigkeit seine Prinzipien preisgegeben? Oder beweist der Deal die bemerkenswerte Elastizität des EU-Verfassungsraums unter äußerem Zwang? Zwar schafft das Abkommen kurzfristig Stabilität, langfristig aber lotet es die Grenzen von Kompetenzen, Demokratie und Rechtsstaatlichkeit in der EU aus – eine Gratwanderung zwischen Souveränität und Submission.

31. Juli 2025

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Can The EU Levy Its Own Taxes?

The budgetary dance in the EU budgetary cycle always starts early and seems to follow similar patterns: the heads of state assess their positions, the press then divides them into camps (usually a frugal and an expansionist one), and the European Commission proposes measures that would expand the Union's budgetary autonomy. With the announcement of a new “Corporate Resource for Europe” (“CORE”), the Commission has relaunched an age-old debate: can the Union levy its own taxes, and if so, on what legal basis?

28. Juli 2025

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Suspension of EU Association Agreements Does Not Require Unanimity

In its meeting on 15 July 2025, the Council of the EU failed to adopt concrete measures vis-à-vis Israel, limiting itself to an “exchange of views on an inventory of possible follow-up measures”. This hesitant approach stands in contrast to clear indications that Israel is in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement (AA), and to the EU’s own obligation to work towards consolidating human rights and the principles of public international law pursuant to Article 21 TEU. While a suspension of the entire AA was never really foreseeable, an important question relates to the voting threshold within the Council that would apply to such a decision relating to the AA.

19. Juli 2025

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Constitutional Awakening of Values

On 5 June 2025, AG Ćapeta delivered her opinion in case C-769/22, raising a pivotal question for the EU’s constitutional future: Can Article 2 TEU serve as a standalone provision in infringement proceedings? While the issue has sparked debate – including on this blog – this post defends the Opinion as a constitutionally coherent and necessary step to safeguard the Union’s foundational values. It argues that AG Ćapeta’s approach is firmly rooted in existing case law and offers a compelling legal framework to address democratic backsliding. The post focuses on her use of the “good society” concept and the proposed “negation of values” test, examining their normative grounding and practical significance within EU law.

3. Juli 2025

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Private Wealth, Public Doubt

Public officials having to disclose their private wealth is a powerful anti-corruption tool that led to the imprisonment or dismissal of hundreds of corrupt public officials across Europe. In Romania, this included ministers and a Parliamentary President. Despite this success, the Romanian Constitutional Court now substantially undermined the effectiveness of asset declarations: it declared the online publication of declarations unconstitutional and invalidated the provision on declaring wealth of adult family members of public officials. There are two reasons for other governance-reforming countries not to follow this case law.

27. Juni 2025

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When Failure Succeeds and Success Fails

Despite its modest uptake since its inception in 2012, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) has become the subject of several cases before the Court of Justice of the EU. The ECI is the world's first and only instrument of direct transnational democracy, allowing a group of at least seven European citizens from seven different EU member states to request that the Union take new action. The growing legal challenges around successful but ineffective ECIs reflect a fundamental mismatch between constitutional recognition of participatory democracy and institutional realities.

19. Juni 2025

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