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On 17 April 2018, the European Commission tabled legislative proposals that frame EU law allowing European law enforcement authorities to quickly and more efficiently secure and obtain electronic evidence (“e-evidence”). There was much debate in the run-up to the proposal, with calls for legislative action being uttered by the Council, on the one hand, and doubts by private companies and civil society organizations being voiced about the need for such action, on the other.

On 23 April 2018, the Commission presented a long-awaited legislative proposal on the protection of whistleblowers. The proposal for a “Directive on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law” (COM(2018) 218 final) is accompanied by a Communication entitled “Strengthening whistleblower protection at EU level” (COM(2018) 214 final).

On 17 April 2018, the Commission proposed another piece of legislation that supplements the current anti-money laundering legal framework. By means of a Directive, the Commission wishes to introduce uniform EU-wide rules, so that designated law enforcement authorities of the Member States can directly access centralized national bank account registries or data retrieval systems.

In February 2018, the director of a Hungarian company was convicted at first instance to three and a half years of imprisonment because he was held responsible for having managed a fraud scheme against EU funds. The case was originally investigated by OLAF; together with a so-called judicial recommendation, its findings were submitted to the Hungarian authorities in 2017. An indictment was filed in 2017.

On 17 April 2018, the Commission proposed a series of measures, aimed at curbing security threats in the EU, under the overall title “Denying terrorists the means and space to act”.

On 9 May 2018, Europe Day, the European Commission launched an online public consultation on the future of Europe. The consultation includes 12 questions for all European citizens to utter their views on the direction the EU should take in the future. The online survey was prepared by a so-called “Citizens’ Panel” of 96 Europeans, which convened on 5-6 May 2018. The questions also include “justice” topics, such as security and migration.

On 10 April 2018, the CJEU delivered a long-awaited judgment in a delicate legal question: whether the Union’s prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality (Art. 18 TFEU) affects national provisions that only ban the extradition of one’s Member States own nationals to third countries. In the affirmative, these national bans need to be extended to all Union citizens.

Following the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court blaming the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg for not having sufficiently taken into account a person’s right to a lawful judge, the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg lodged a reference for a preliminary ruling to the CJEU.

On 27 March 2018, the Higher Regional Court of Bremen/Germany, submitted a request to the CJEU seeking clarification of the CJEU’s case law on detention conditions as set out in the Aranyosi/Căldăraru case.

The surrender of Carles Puigdemont, who promoted the independence of Catalonia from Spain, became a matter for German authorities. On 25 March 2018, while returning to Belgium from a trip to Finland, Puigdemont was apprehended north of Germany, near the border to Denmark.