Putting the cart before the horse: a doomed constitutional strategy for negotiating the T-TIP

Emanuela Matei** Associate Researcher at the Centre of European Legal Studies, Bucharest. Juris Master in European Business Law (Lund University, June 2012), Magister legum (Lund University, June 2010), BSc in Economics & Business Administration (Lund University, June 2009).IntroductionOn 18 June 2015 the European Commission requested the termination of the intra-EU bilateral investment treaties (BITs) concluded by Austria, Romania, Slovakia,...

Read More

The Calais crisis: which Member State is responsible?

Steve PeersSeveral thousand migrants are living in poor conditions near Calais, many apparently intent on making it to the UK. Their attempts to find passage via the Eurotunnel are severely delaying travel on both sides of the border. Which country is responsible for them: the UK or France? At the outset, we should note that this is in a way a clash between two different types of movement within the EU. On the one hand, we have the free movement...

Read More

National parliaments and the “Five Presidents’ Report’: The long road towards the democratization of EMU

Ton van den Brink, Associate Professor, University of UtrechtThe recent ‘Five Presidents’ Report’ contains far-reaching proposals to deepen the EU’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which have been analyzed here. These proposals also have far reaching consequences for national parliaments. The much needed democratization of the EMU requires national parliaments to be assigned with stronger rights than the proposed intensification of ‘dialogues’.What...

Read More

When all the people in a district are victims of race discrimination: CJEU ruling in CHEZ v Nikolova

Simon Cox, lawyer at the Open Society Justice Initiative* Last week’s CJEU judgment in C-83/14 CHEZ v Nikolova shows the important role of the CJEU to advance the struggle of Roma communities against systematic discrimination by businesses and Governments. Moreover, the Grand Chamber ruling on equal treatment establishes a powerful tool for districts marginalized by powerful actors.The case is a great example of how the CJEU can empower lower...

Read More

Institutional balance and the negotiation of international agreements

Andrés Delgado Casteleiro, Lecturer at Durham Law SchoolIntroductionIn last Thursday’s judgment on the Case C-425/13, Commission v Council, the CJEU was asked to determine the scope of the Council’s powers to issue negotiating directives to the Commission and the role of the special committee overseeing the Commission during the negotiations with Australia concerning the linking of its emissions trading system with the EU.  The case concerns...

Read More