Search results

On 29 October 2021, the European Parliament (EP) submitted the action against the European Commission for failure to apply the Regulation on the conditionality mechanism to the CJEU. The action is registered as Case C-657/21.

The Advoate General recommend the CJEU to dismiss the actions brought by Hungary and Poland against the EU's conditionality mechanism to protect the Union budget from rule-of-law breaches. The AG sees no violation regarding the chosen legal basis, the circumvention of the Article 7 procedure and the principle of legal certainty.

On 28 October 2021, the CJEU ruled in an appeal judgment (Case C-650/19 P) on the right to be heard in administrative proceedings involving several authorities. The case also raised questions in relation to the way in which OLAF carries out external investigations and, more specifically, the limits of digital forensic operations, as well as the scope of the principle of legitimate expectations.

Between August and September 2021, Union institutions made the Next Generation EU (NGEU) operational. The NGEU is the EU’s economic recovery instrument in order to overcome the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The NGEU fund will operate from 2021-2023 and tied with the EU’s …

This news item continues updates in previous eucrim issues on rule-of-law developments in Hungary (as far as they relate to European law). For the last overview → eucrim 2/2021, 72-73 with further references to previous reports.

This news item continues the overview of recent rule-of-law developments in Poland (as far as they relate to European law) since the last update in eucrim issue 2/2021, 71-72.

On 20 September 2021, the European Commission released the 32nd annual report on the protection of the EU’s financial interests. It gives an overview of the main developments in 2020 as regards the legislative, practical, and cooperation framework of the EU to fight fraud affecting the EU budget. The report also addresses the irregularities and fraud reported in 2020 and their related risks.

On 2 September 2021, the CJEU decided that EU law (i.e. Directive 2005/60/EC) does not preclude national legislation that provides that the offence of money laundering can also be committed by the perpetrator of the predicate offence, i.e. the criminal activity from which the money concerned was derived. As a result, the CJEU follows the opinion of AG Hogan in this case.

On 6 October 2021, the CJEU handed down a judgment, in which it clarifies its case law in Cilifit under which conditions national last instance courts may refrain from making a reference for a preliminary ruling. The Grand Chamber judgment reasserts the three situations in which national courts or tribunals of last instance are not subject to the obligation to make a reference for a preliminary ruling – an obligation laid down in Art. 267 TFEU.

This news items summarises the current state of play of negotiations on the planned e-evidence Regulation. Despite the very opposing starting points of the co-legislators, a compromise text could be reached on several issues.