European Forum

Abstract: In the asymmetric Economic and Monetary Union “market discipline” has played an important and controversial role to compensate for the weakness of the legal framework as regards fiscal affairs. Both as an empirical matter of market behaviour and as a matter of the “no bail-out” clauses of arts 123 and 125 TFEU being effectively undermined...

Abstract: The latest judgment of the General Court in the Intel case annulled the EU Commission’s decision from 2009 imposing a €1.06 billion fine on Intel for abusing its dominant position by offering fidelity rebate schemes (case T‑286/09 Intel v Commission ECLI:EU:T:2022:19). The judgment reaffirms the application of an “effects...

Abstract: The global reform of the EU migration policy envisaged in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum is stalling. The increased number of arrivals from Belarus gave the European Commission the opportunity to change its approach in attempting to reform the European migration management. The Belarus crisis, influenced by the active involvement of...

Abstract: The decentralized issuance of financial instruments is presently problematic under EU law. This situation will change with the entry into force of the Regulation on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology. The Regulation provides for a regulatory sandbox – the pilot regime – that market operators...

Abstract: In recent years the EU and its Member States have claimed to be increasingly targeted by “weaponised” migration. Due to the contemporary sensitivity of migration-related issues in the EU, neighbouring states are supposedly using the threat of increased migration to force the Union’s hand in other policy areas. Below, several recent...

Abstract: A series of challenges and crises have highlighted the deficits of the ‘Schengen Αrea’ both regarding its external and internal borders. This resulted in the undermining of trust between the Member States which is essential to sustain an area free from internal borders. Thus, the EU Commission presented in December 2021 new rules to...

Abstract: On 21 December 2021, the Court of Justice decided the case Bank Melli Iran v Telekom Deutschland GmbH (case C-124/20, ECLI:EU:C:2021:1035), relating to the interpretation of Regulation 2271/96 protecting against the effects of extraterritorial application of legislation adopted by a third country, better known as the “blocking...

Abstract: In case C-638/19 P Commission v European Food ECLI:EU:C:2022:50, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union held that the Commission was competent to assess the compatibility of State aid granted as a consequence of an arbitral award issued against Romania by a tribunal established under a bilateral investment...

Abstract: Art. 2(2)(a) of the Directive 2008/115/EC (Return Directive) provides the conditions whereby the Member States can derogate from some provisions of the directive itself. An amendment to remove this clause is under discussion before the European Parliament, as part of the negotiations on the directive’s recast. Derogations from the scope of...

Keywords: soil – Green Deal – climate change – Framework Directive – environmental law – subsidiarity.

In its 2020 Report on the State of the Environment, the European Environment Agency highlighted the increasingly serious degradation of EU soils.[1] Soils constitute largely...