02 February 2023
Qatargate: A Missed Opportunity to Reform the Union
When the news broke about the arrest of EU Parliament’s Vice-President Eva Kaili in flagrant offence for corruption and money laundering, many observers instantly qualified Qatargate as the largest and the most damaging scandal affecting the European integration process since its inception. Since then, this prediction proves truer day by day, revelation after revelation. Yet, despite unprecedented media coverage and a shocked public, this scandal has not yet generated within the EU and national political class a good enough response to mitigate its damaging effects. EU leaders can hardly afford to miss this unique opportunity to prepare a convincing answer to the question many citizens will soon be asking: Why vote in the next EU Parliament’s election in 2024? Continue reading >>
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01 February 2023
The rise of Article 122 TFEU
The last decade, and especially the past year, saw a marked increase in the EU’s reliance on Article 122 TFEU. This legal basis was used to adopt a series of measures aimed to address the health and energy crises following the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At least two of those measures are now subject to direct challenges before the General Court and the Court of Justice. From a constitutional perspective, however, it is unfortunate that these two cases will probably not invite the Courts to address the more fundamental constitutional questions raised by the Council’s recent recourse to Article 122 TFEU. Continue reading >>20 January 2023
#DefendingTheDefenders – Episode 6: The European Union
In the sixth episode of our rule of law podcast #DefendingTheDefenders with Deutscher Anwaltverein, we talk about the European Union and the state of the professional freedom of attorneys there. We want to hear from attorneys professional organisations as well as from regulators, and have spoken to both sides. Continue reading >>
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19 January 2023
Internet collapse made in Europe
Nothing has changed since the last time there was a debate regarding the relationship between telecommunication providers and online content providers. Nevertheless, the European Commission is willing to take a massive gamble and entertain the possibility of regulation to oblige online services to pay their "fair share" towards increased bandwidth consumption. This regulatory shift could risk an Internet collapse in Europe. Continue reading >>
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17 January 2023
7 Years Later: Poland as a Legal Black Hole
The EU is faced with a Member State where all of its top courts are now unlawfully composed; where every single judicial appointment procedure since 2018 is inherently defective due to the involvement of an unconstitutional body; and where core EU and ECHR requirements relating to effective judicial protection and the fundamental right to an independent court established by law have been held “unconstitutional” in 2021 and 2022 by the body masquerading as Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal. Continue reading >>
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31 October 2022
Platform oversight
The Digital Services Act requires EU member states to name a “Digital Services Coordinator” (DSC) to coordinate national regulators involved in platform oversight. But the DSCs are more than just “coordinators,” as they have to fulfill specific oversight tasks themselves. That is why member states should resist the temptation to build a small-scale coordinator and instead build a strong DSC with skills in data analysis, community management and flexible case-based work. Continue reading >>
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31 October 2022
A Regulator Caught Between Conflicting Policy Objectives
The Digital Services Act has landed on an increased centralization of its enforcement powers in the hands of the European Commission. The rationale behind this centralized enforcement is understandable, particularly in light of the experience with GDPR enforcement. At the same time, it raises crucial questions about the future recurrence of such centralizaion in the Commission's hands, and the separation of powers more broadly. Continue reading >>
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31 October 2022
The DSA has been published – now the difficult bit begins
The Digital Services Act (DSA) has finally been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 October 2022. This publication marks the end of a years-long drafting and negotiation process, and opens a new chapter: that of its enforcement, practicable access to justice, and potential to set global precedents. Continue reading >>
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06 October 2022
How NOT to Be an Independent Agency
The Hungarian government is trying to convince EU institutions that it is taking adequate steps to ensure proper spending of EU funds going forward. At the center of this effort is a new ‘Integrity Authority’. The law establishing this authority, Bill T/1260, just passed the Hungarian Parliament on 3 October 2022. We have carefully read the laws enacted so far that establish a new anti-corruption framework and can confidently say that neither the Commission nor the Council should accept what the Hungarian government is offering because the proposed changes do not begin to alter business as usual in Hungary. In this blogpost, we will analyze the ‘Integrity Authority’ which forms the centerpiece of the government’s program, showing that it is not independent from the government nor are its powers real. Continue reading >>
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05 October 2022
Sham and Smokescreen
Since 27 April 2022, Hungary has been under the Rule of Law conditionality mechanism, introduced by the Conditionality Regulation. After various debates and considerations, and in the light of the blackmailing potential of the Hungarian prime minister, the Regulation, in a weaker form than initially proposed, works as a preventive tool for ensuring the protection of the EU budget and sound financial management of EU resources. The Hungarian government has a record of misleading (and betraying) the European Union, and apparently, it is not different now. Continue reading >>
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