International Law

Case T?345/05, Mote v European Parliament

Posted on November 13, 2008
>> Court of First Instance reiterates that it will only review review legality of acts of the European Parliament intended to produce legal effects vis-à-vis third partiesIn November 2003, criminal proceedings were brought against Ashley Neil Mote, a British citizen, on the ground that various State benefits he had received between 1996 and 2002 had been obtained on the basis of false declarations...

Joined Cases C-468/06 to C-478/06, Sot. Lélos kai Sia

Posted on September 30, 2008
>> Court finds that Greek pharmaceuticals company abused its dominant position by refusing to meet ordinary orders by wholesalers in order to prevent parallel exportsGlaxoSmithKline AEVE was the Greek subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline, which held the marketing authorisation in Greece for certain prescription-only medicines and imported, warehoused and distributed pharmaceutical products of the GSK group in Greece...

C-43/07, Arens-Sikken

Posted on September 30, 2008
>> Court finds Dutch rules concerning the assessment of inheritance duties and transfer duties incompatible with Articles 56 and 58 ECThis case is largely similar to Case C-11/07, Eckelkamp (delivered the same day), on which I wrote this post.The referring court asked whether the combined provisions of Articles 56 and 58 precluded rules concerning the assessment of inheritance duties and transfer duties payable in respect of an immovable property situated in that Member State which, for the assessment of those duties, made no provision for the deductibility of overendowment debts resulting from a testamentary parental partition inter vivos where the person whose estate was being administered was residing, at the time of death, not in that State, in which the immovable property was situated, but in another Member State, whereas provision was made for such deductibility where the person concerned was residing, at the time of death, in the first-mentioned State...

Case C-11/07, Eckelkamp

Posted on September 30, 2008
>> Court finds Belgian rules concerning the assessment of inheritance duties and transfer duties incompatible with Articles 56 and 58 ECThis case is largely similar to C-43/07, Arens-Sikken (delivered the same day), on which I wrote this post.The referring court asked whether Arts 12, 17 and 18 EC and Arts 56 and 58 EC precluded legislation of a Member State concerning the assessment of transfer and inheritance duties payable in respect of an immovable property situated in that Member State which made no provision for the deductibility of debts secured on such property where the person whose estate was being administered was residing, at the time of death, not in that State, in which the immovable property was situated, but in another Member State, whereas provision was made for such deductibility where the person concerned was, at the time of death, residing in the first-mentioned State...

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Case C-427/06, Bartsch

Posted on September 30, 2008
>> National rules requiring link with Community law in order to fall within scope of Article 13 ECIn this case, the referring court asked whether the application of the prohibition under Community law of discrimination on the ground of age was mandatory where the allegedly discriminatory treatment contained no link with Community law...

New CFI judge

Posted on September 30, 2008
>> O'Higgins succeeding Cooke Last July, Mr Kevin O?Higgins was appointed Judge of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities until August 31, 2013. He succeeds Mr John D. Cooke. At September 15, a formal sitting was held at the Court on the occasion of the departure of Mr John D...

Case T-403/05, My Travel

Posted on September 29, 2008
>> CFI reiterates exceptions to right of access to Commission documents must be interpreted and applied strictlyThe applicant, a United Kingdom travel company, had announced its intention to acquire the whole of the issued share capital of one of its competitors in the United Kingdom on the stock market and had notified the proposed concentration to the Commission...

Joined Cases C?428/06 to C?434/06, UGT?Rioja et al.

Posted on September 15, 2008
>> Court articulates three criteria according to which, in the context of state aid, a decision taken by a regional or local authority could be regarded as having been adopted in the exercise of sufficiently autonomous powers, reiterating much of its judgment in Case C?88/03 Portugal v Commission [2006]...

Case C-521/06 P, Athinaïki

Posted on September 15, 2008
>> Court of First Instance erred in law in holding that decision not to take futher action on complaint concerning alleged State aid had no legal effect and could not therefore be the subject of an action under Art. 230 ECOn October 2001, the Greek authorities initiated a procedure for the award of a public contract with a view to disposing of 49% of the capital of the Casino Mont Parnès...

Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P, C-402 Kadi and Al Barakaat

Posted on September 11, 2008
>> Obligations imposed by an international agreement cannot have the effect of prejudicing constitutional principles of the EC TreatyMr Kadi, a resident of Saudi Arabia, and Al Barakaat, a foundation established in Sweden, were designated by the United Nations Sanctions Committee as being associated with Usama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda or the Taleban...

Case C-296/08 PPU, Santesteban Goicoechea

Posted on September 05, 2008
>> Second PPU case, Court again asked to interpret Framework Decision European Arrest Warrant Again a case on the European Arrest Warrant Framework. And the second case in which the urgent in which the urgent preliminary rulings procedure as provided for in Art...

Case C-195/08 PPU, Rinau

Posted on September 05, 2008
>> First case in which new urgent preliminary rulings procedure was usedThis the first of the two cases so far in which the urgent preliminary rulings procedure as provided for in Art. 104b of the Rules of Procedure was used (see further this post). The second case will be discussed in the next post...

Case C-206/06, Essent

Posted on September 03, 2008
>> Court of Justice reiterates electricy is product, recaps criteria Art. 87(1) ECThe process of liberalising the Dutch electricity sector in implementation of Directive 96/92 was initiated by a 1998 Law on electricity.A Transitional Law on Electricity provided that ?Every customer, not being a protected customer, shall, in addition to what he contractually owes to the net operator for the area in which he is established, pay to that net operator an amount of NLG 0...

Case C-49/07, MOTOE

Posted on September 03, 2008
>> Court of Justice holds that public body can infringe competition law MOTOE, a non?profit?making association governed by private law whose object was the organisation of motorcycling competitions in Greece, submitted to the competent minister an application for authorisation to organise such competitions...

Case C-66/08, Koz?owski

Posted on September 03, 2008
>> Court of Justice defines scope of Article 4(6) of Framework Decision European arrest warrantIn 2002, Mr Koz?owski was sentenced in Poland to five months? imprisonment. The sentence imposed by that judgment had become final, but had not yet been executed...

Case C?413/06 P, Bertelsmann and Sony

Posted on September 03, 2008
>> Judgment CFI set aside because it had required detailed description of each of the factors underpinning Commission decision declaring concentration compatible with common marketBertelsmann and Sony were two international media companies which had notified to the Commission their intent to integrate their global recorded music businesses into three or more newly-created companies...

Case C-173/07, Schenkel

Posted on July 31, 2008
>> Journey out and back not a single flightMr Schenkel booked in Germany, with Emirates, an outward and return journey from Düsseldorf to Manila via Dubai . His return flight from Manila was cancelled because of technical problems. Mr Schenkel eventually departed from two days later and arrived at Düsseldorf on the same day...

Case C-33/07, Jipa

Posted on July 31, 2008
>> Repatriation restricting EU citizen?s right of free movement only when genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to fundamental interest of society.Mr Jipa left Romania to travel to Belgium. On account of his ?illegal residence? in Belgium, he was repatriated to Romania under the terms of an Agreement between Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, on the one hand, and Romania, on the other, on the readmission of persons who were in an illegal situation...

Joined Cases C-39 and 52/05 P, Sweden and Turco

Posted on July 31, 2008
>> Regulation 1049/2001 imposing obligation to disclose opinions of the Council?s legal service relating to a legislative process.In this case, Mr Turco had submitted a request to the Council for access to the documents appearing on the agenda of a JHA Council meeting, including an opinion of the Council?s legal service on a proposal for a Council Directive laying down minimum standards for the reception of applicants for asylum in Member States...

C-195/08 PPU, Rinau

Posted on June 26, 2008
Today was the hearing of the first case using the new urgent preliminary ruling procedure in the area of FSJ. The case was lodged only five weeks ago.Today, the first case (C-195/08 PPU) was heard in which the new urgent preliminary ruling procedure in the area of freedom, security and justice is being used (hence the suffix)...

Case C-458/06, Gourmet Classic

Posted on June 12, 2008
>> Court has jurisdiction in Art. 234 case even if all parties agree on interpretation of Community law provision.The Gourmet Classic case, which was delivered this morning, prima facie seemed just an ordinary Art. 234 EC case. The Regeringsrätten (The Swedish Supreme Administrative Court) asked the Court whether the alcohol in cooking wine must be regarded as ethyl alcohol within the meaning of Art...

Case C-308/06, Intertanko

Posted on June 11, 2008
>> Not possible to rely on Marpol 73/78 or UNCLOSThe European Community acceded to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (?UNCLOS?) in 1998. The Community has not (yet) acceded to the Marpol 73/78 agreement which established rules to combat pollution of the marine environment...

Voting for US president as EU citizen

Posted on June 11, 2008
If you are a EU citizen who wants to vote for the next President of the United States, you might want to check out this site. A French version is also available.

Preliminary references

Posted on June 11, 2008
Already some time ago, Rene Barents, who has been Head of Research and Documentation for the ECJ since 2000, sent me this document (table of contents, both pdf)) on preliminary references under Art. 234 EC. An interesting read, highly recommended. Apologies to all ECJBlog readers for not posting it any sooner...

Case C-499/06, Nerkowska

Posted on June 11, 2008
>> Residence requirement for disability pension granted to civilian victims of war or repression infringing Art. 18 ECMs Nerkowska , who had Polish nationality, was born on in 1946 in the territory of present-day Belarus. In 1951, Ms Nerkowska was deported to the former USSR...

Case C-91/05, Commission v Council

Posted on June 11, 2008
>> Council infringing Art. 47 EU by adopting Decision 2004/833 on basis of Title V of the EU TreatyThe Commission of the European Communities asked the Court to annul Decision 2004/833 implementing Joint Action 2002/589 with a view to a European Union contribution to ECOWAS in the framework of the Moratorium on Small Arms and Light Weapons and to declare inapplicable, because of its illegality, Title II of Joint Action 2002/589 on the European Union?s contribution to combating the destabilising accumulation and spread of small arms and light weapons and repealing Action 1999/34...

Case C 268/06, Impact

Posted on May 22, 2008
National courts required to apply directly effective provisions of Community law even if not been given express jurisdiction to do so under domestic law.A 2003 Irish Law on the Protection of Employees transposed Directive 1999/70 into Irish law. In a dispute between a Irish trade union against the government departments which employed them, the referring court asked whether, notwithstanding the absence of any express provision to that effect in the relevant national law, a national court or tribunal which was called upon to decide a case concerning an infringement of the legislation transposing Directive 1999/70 was required by Community law to hold that it also had jurisdiction to hear and determine claims based directly on that directive itself, where such claims related to a period after the deadline for transposing the directive concerned, but before the date of entry into force of the transposing legislation giving it jurisdiction to hear and determine claims based on that legislation...

Case C-346/06, Ruffert

Posted on May 22, 2008
National law requiring contract following public tender ensuring compliance with rate of pay in collective agreement infringing Directive 96/71 and Art. 49 EC.This case concerned the Law of Land Niedersachsen on the award of public contracts (the ?Landesvergabegesetz?), which required that following a public tender, the contract awarded should contain a declaration regarding compliance with the collective agreements and, more specifically, with that regarding payment to employees employed on the building site of at least the minimum wage in force at the place where those services were to be performed pursuant to the ?Buildings and public works? collective agreement...

Back to blogging

Posted on May 22, 2008
Becoming father for the second time, finishing my phd thesis, buying and moving to a new house. You could say I have had more important things on my mind lately. However, expect to find a lot of ECJ news on this blog again, starting today!

Enlargement of Schengen area

Posted on December 21, 2007
Today Estonia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia become part of the Schengen area. This means that controls at internal land and sea borders between these countries and the current 15 member states are lifted...

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