PhD Forum “Law and Governance in a Crisis-Ridden Union”
Netherlands Institute for Law and Governance, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 17 November 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions : 4 September 2016.
Call for papers “The Migration Crisis as a Challenge for Democracy”
Centre for Direct Democracy Studies, University of Białystok. Deadline for abstract submissions : 10 September 2016.
By Daniela Jaros
A couple of months ago, an interesting volume edited by Federico Fabbrini, Ernst Hirsch Ballin and Han Somsen entitled „What form of government for the European Union and the Eurozone?“ appeared on the EU law book market. Containing contributions of many renowned scholars of EU law and EU politics, it seeks to explore the impact of the Euro-crisis on the institutional setting, the distribution of competences and the balance of power as well as issues of legitimacy and accountability within the Eurozone and ultimately within the European Union. Continue reading
Jean Monnet Doctoral Workshop “Interactions Between European Union and International Law”
City University London, 23 June 2016. Deadline for abstract submission: 25 March 2016.
Conference “Boosting the Enforcement of EU Competition Law at Domestic Level”
Radboud University Nijmegen, 3 June 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 31 March 2016.
Workshop “The Disintegration of Europe”
Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, 30-31 May 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 April 2016.
Seminar “Transnational Solidarity: Setting the Boundaries”
Center for Transnational Legal Studies, London, 1 April 2016. (Free) registration needed.
Conference “Environmental Rights in Europe and Beyond”
Lund, 21-22 April 2016. (Free) registration needed.
Conference “Existe-t-il encore un seul non bis in idem aujourd’hui?”
University of Nancy, 28 April 2016. Registration needed.
Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law Conference 2016
Vienna University of Economics and Business, 23 September 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 May 2016. Continue reading
Conference “The European Convention on Human Rights and the Crimes of the Past”
European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, February 26 2016. Deadline for registration: 19 February 2016.
Conference “Searching for Solidarity in EU Asylum and Border Policies”
Brussels, 26-27 February 2016. (Paid) registration needed.
Conference “Reforms in UN Treaty Bodies and the European Court of Human Rights: Mutual Lessons?”
University of Oslo, 29 February 2016. (Free) registration needed.
University of Luxembourg, 17 March 2016. (Free) registration needed.
Workshop “Austerity and Law in Europe”
University of Amsterdam, 16-17 June 2016. (Free) registration needed.
EUI Summer Courses on Human Rights and on the Law of the European Union
European University Institute, Florence, 20 June-1 July/4-15 July 2016. Deadline for applications: 4 April 2016.
University of Oslo, 25-26 August 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 March 2016.
Workshop „The Age of Austerity: A New Challenge for State Powers“
University of Edinburgh, 30 March 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 20 December 2015.
CJICL Conference „Public and Private Power“
University of Cambridge, 8-9 April 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 10 January 2016.
Workshop „The preliminary reference procedure as a compliance mechanism of EU environmental law“
Brussels, 17 June 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 January 2016.
Conference „Building Consensus on European Consensus“
European University Institute, Florence, 1-2 June 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 31 January 2016.
Doctoral Colloquium „Responsibility in International and European Law, Philosophy and History“
University of Fribourg, 11-12 November 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 1 March 2016.
EELF Conference „Procedural Environmental Rights: Principle X in Theory and Practice“
Wrocław University, 14-16 September 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 March 2016.
Conference „Intra-EU BITs and Intra-EU Disputes“
University of Vienna, 7 March 2016. (Paid) registration needed.
Conference “The European Union as an Actor in International Economic Law”
University of Luxembourg, 1-2 October 2015. Deadline for registration: 30 September 2015.
Conference “Criminal Justice: Jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice – Today and Future”
Court of Justice of the European Union, 2-3 October 2015. (Paid) registration required.
Inaugural CMLRev Conference “Membership of the Union and Membership of the Euro”
University of Liverpool, 9 October 2015. (Free) registration required.
University of Luxembourg, 15 October 2015. (Free) registration required.
Workshop “A balanced data protection in the EU: conflicts and possible solutions”
UM Campus Brussels, University of Maastricht, 19 October 2015. (Paid) registration required.
Conference “Migration Policy in the European Union – Current Challenges and Future Developments”
University of Luxembourg, 22-23 October 2015.
Call for submissions for the 2016 edition of the Hibernian Law Journal
Deadline for submissions: 31 October 2015.
EIUC Training for International Electoral Observers
Monastery of San Nicolò, 23-28 November 2015. Deadline for application: 30 October 2015.
Workshop “Victims in Europe – Needs, Rights, Perspectives”
University of Luxembourg, 16 November 2015.
PluriCourts, University of Oslo, 20-25 June 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 January 2016.
Conference “The Democratic Principle and the Economic and Monetary Union”
University of Rome – Tor Vergata, 22 January 2016. Deadline for abstract submissions: 30 September 2015.
Conference “General Principles of Law: European and Comparative Perspectives”
University of Oxford, 25-26 September 2015. No deadline for registration.
Call for Papers “Intellectual Property in International and European Law”
Utrecht Journal of International and European Law. Deadline for submissions: 15 October 2015.
By Michael Ioannidis
Few elections have as their core issue an international arrangement. The Greek election of 25 January 2015 was one of these exceptions. In 2010 and 2012, Greece agreed with its Eurozone partners and the IMF to accept two large bailout packages conditioned on the fulfilment of far-reaching, austerity-oriented reforms. It also agreed to submit to a monitoring mechanism comprised by officials from the European Commission, the IMF, and the ECB that would supervise its compliance with the conditions and regularly revise them. This monitoring and rule-making structure became known as the Troika.
The second of the bailout agreements, concluded in 2012, was due to expire on 28 February 2015. Unlike Portugal or Ireland, Greece had not established access to the bond market by the end of its Adjustment Programme. Ending international financing support at the end of February would thus possibly prompt a Greek default. What the next step after the expiry of the 2012 bailout programme should be was put to a national vote on 25 January.
This post will offer an overview of the recent major developments concerning the Greek part of the Eurozone crisis. It will discuss how the Greek government tried to challenge basic elements of the new European economic governance and the outcome of this challenge. In the first part of the post, I present the starting position of the new Greek government (1.), then the legal and political context in which the negotiations took place (2.), and finally the agreement of 20 February 2015 (3.). In my conclusion, I take the position that opponents of austerity should wait to celebrate a victory. “Strict conditionality”, the necessary counterpart of financial assistance according to EU law, proved to be much stricter than many actors thought, both in economic and institutional terms (4.). Continue reading
By Daniela Jaros
On January 14, Advocate General (AG) Cruz-Villalón issued his opinion in the reference for a preliminary ruling on Gauweiler et al. v Deutscher Bundestag on the ECB’s Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). The OMT Programme launched in September 2012 was part of a series of measures taken by the ECB in response to the Euro crisis accompanying the loan facilities (European Financial Stability Facility – EFSF, European Stability Mechansim – ESM).
The German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, “BVerfG”) had asked the Court of Justice (CJEU) two questions in what it classified as an ultra vires review of acts of the European Union. Roughly speaking, the BVerfG wanted to check whether the European Central Bank (ECB) had transgressed the limits of its powers derived from the treaties. If the ECB had, this would have consequences for the constitutional identity of Germany. Therefore, the BVerfG first wanted clarification on whether the Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) Programme was an economic rather than a monetary measure and whether the ECB had therefore exceeded its powers by establishing it. Second, the BVerfG raised the question whether the OMT programme was not violating the prohibition of monetary financing of Member State. Continue reading
Conference : 22nd St. Gallen International Competition Law Forum
University of St. Gallen, 23-24 April 2015.
Call for Papers: Conference “The State and/of Comparative Law”
University of Limerick, 2-4 June 2015. Deadline for abstract submissions: 28 February 2015.
Brussels, 10 September 2015. Deadline for summary presentations submissions: 1 March 2015. Continue reading
By Chris Koedooder
As the response to the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis has shown, when push comes to shove, EU Member States are willing to accept a further transfer of powers to the European level. However, they are – understandably – not so keen on reforms that diminish their international stature. The long overdue consolidation of the Eurozone’s external representation, identified as one of the building blocks of a ‘genuine’ Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), was perpetually delayed under the Barroso Commission. EU Member States, it appears, are still not ready to accept this particular curtailment of their powers. This raises the question whether the new Juncker Commission will be able to seal the deal fifteen years after the Eurozone came into existence. Continue reading
By Barbera Reisenhofer and Daniela Jaros
While the Eurozone crisis started as banking crisis which turned into a sovereign debt crisis simultaneously leading to the crisis of the monetary union, the first measures taken (bilateral loans to Greece, the EFSF, the ESM, the ECB’s SMP and later OMTs, the Six-Pack and the TSCG) were primarily meant to stabilize and contain the ongoing crisis. The Banking Union, however, completed through the recent agreement on the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), is a further, forward-looking step. More than to contain, it is meant to prevent crises of the kind just experienced. It has rightly been described as the most ambitious integration project since the creation of the single currency as it leads to its members transferring the control of their biggest banks to the supranational level.
The Banking Union consists of two pillars – the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) and the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM). Continue reading
On Friday, February 7th, 2014, the German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) requested the CJEU for preliminary ruling for the first time. The request is exceptional in terms of both European Union law and German constitutional law. Commentators call the decision a Spring in the Desert, a Golden Bridge to Luxembourg or simply put Historic. The BVerfG stated its opinion throughout several decisions regarding fundamental questions between the European Union and its Member States (e.g. Solange I, Solange II, Maastricht, Lisbon), but always abstained from requesting a preliminary ruling. This time, however, the BVerfG indeed submitted a question. The stakes in the case are high, as the BVerfG considers giving an ultra vires ruling regarding a decision by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) concerning Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) unless the CJEU announces that that decision is partially incompatible with primary law or restricts its scope. If the “conditions” laid out by the BVerfG are not met by the CJEU, the decision on OMT will be declared incompatible with the German constitution. The consequence would be that German authorities would not be bound to the decision by the ECB. In other words, the German central bank with around 18 % in capital subscriptions (shares) of the ECB would not participate in OMTs. Continue reading
The moment has come to deliver on this blog’s promise of looking beyond the realm of the English language. For this POMFR post, I would like to present a recently published Festschrift which contains a number of contributions of interest to EU lawyers capable of reading German.
Der Staat im Recht is a Festschrift for Professor Eckart Klein, formerly Ordinarius at the University of Potsdam, which covers a broad range of topics – constitutional law, procedural law, international and human rights law and of course EU law. Now, while there are a number of non-EU law contributions which I found thought-provoking (if you have time, read the rather grim essay on the world dominance of human rights by Isensee, ‘Die heikle Weltherrschaft der Menschenrechte’), I will focus on the EU law contributions for this blog post. Continue reading
Is there such a thing as an unconstitutional constitutional amendment? And if so, does the judge have the power to declare that amendment unconstitutional?
The question seems nonsensical or paradoxical, “rather like asking whether the Bible can be unbiblical”. Yet, if it is primarily the preserve of constitutional theorists – think of the American debate about the constitutionality of a proposed flag-burning amendment – it is nevertheless an issue with practical implications, as witnessed in the recent Pringle case before the CJEU. Here, the Court was asked to assess the validity of a Treaty amendment by reference to the European Union’s (EU) own Treaties. The Court rejected the argument that it did not have jurisdiction and affirmed its power to review the validity of the amendment. Continue reading
The Pringle case (Case C-370/12 Pringle) decided today is arguably the case of the year. In an accelerated procedure, the full court (all 27 judges!) answered a number of questions referred by the Irish Supreme Court on the competence of EU Member States under EU law to conclude the ESM Treaty. The ESM Treaty is a treaty under public international law concluded by the members of the eurozone to create a permanent crisis mechanism to safeguard the stability of the euro area. It is the latest answer to the ongoing sovereign debt crisis (dubbed the ‘eurocrisis’) experienced by a number EU Member States that have the euro as a currency.
Despite the good intentions of its creators, the idea of setting up a permanent international body competent to grant financial assistance (amongst other things) to eurozone members in financial difficulties goes somewhat against the foundations of the Economic and Monetary Union, which aims at ensuring price stability through sound government budgets. It is thus not surprising that a case was brought before the CJEU so that the latter had to rule on whether Member States can actually do this under EU law.