A few remarks on the Romanian administrative code

Author(s): Elisabeta Slabu / Language(s): English / Issue: 2-Suppl/2018

The adoption of the Administrative Code responds to a need recognized both by most scholars and by most governments in Romania, the purpose pursued being to systematize and rationalize the legal framework available in the field of public administration. Nevertheless, this normative act which is markedly important for the manner in which the public administration activity in Romania is carried out, must be the fruit of a consensus among all the political forces existing at a certain time in the state, precisely in order to produce the mentioned effects. Otherwise, there is a danger that this act will need to be changed frequently and consistently, which goes against the principles recognized at European level regarding the observance of the rule of law.

A Framework for Modern Rural Policy in Poland – Dialogue with the Research Community

Author(s): Tamara KRAWCHENKO / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2018

Rural development in Poland has excelled at a rapid pace since EU accession. Muchhas been achieved. Going forward, rural policies will need to maintain this momentum,address some of the most intractable policy problems, such as persistent pockets of poverty,and ensure that growth and prosperity is experienced in all regions. Poland’s researchcommunity has and should continue to play a pivotal role in addressing these issues. Thisarticle follows on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD)2018 Rural Policy Review of Poland. It provides a brief summary of the main findings of thisstudy and the conceptual framework which guided it and proposes four main lessons (andchallenges) for research community.

A Historical Study of Contemporary Human Rights: Deviation or Extinction?

Author(s): Tanel Kerikmäe,Ondrej Hamuľák,Archil Chochia / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

Human rights is a core issue of continuing political, legal and economic relevance. The current article discusses the historical perceptions of the very essence of human rights standards and poses the question whether the Realpolitik of the changed world and Europe can justify the deviation from the “purist” approach to human rights. The EU Charter, as the most eminent and contemporary “bill of rights”, is chosen as an example of the divergence from “traditional values”. The article does not offer solutions but rather focuses on the expansive development in the doctrinal approach of interpreting human rights that has not been conceptually agreed upon by historians, philosophers and legal scholars.

A kisebbségek védelme az olasz–horvát és az olasz–szlovén kétoldalú kapcsolatokban

Author(s): Balázs Vizi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2017

Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, the situation of Italian minorities living in successor states raised great concerns in Italy. This article offers an overview of the evolution of bilateral minority protection instruments between Italy and Croatia, Slovenia respectively. New treaties and initiatives emerged in the 1990s in this regard strongly build on the post- WWII international legal arrangements concerning the situation of minorities. The analysis of the relevant treaty provisions in a broader political and historical context leads to the conclusion that from the 1990s bilateral minority protection agreements rather reflect a political commitment than a set of strict normative obligations.

A külhoni magyarok nyelvi diszkriminációja az Unióban

Az EU közszolgálati törvényszékének ítélete a román bővítéssel összefüggésben szervezett versenyvizottságról

Author(s): Petra Lea Láncos / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2016

The present article gives a critical account of the European General Court's judgment in the B.A. vs. Commission case. B.A., a Hungarian and Romanian dual citizen sought the annulment of the decision of European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) which denied her the right to sit for the competition in her native language, Hungarian and refused to admit her to the oral test after she failed the test in Romanian. B.A. claimed that she had been afforded unequal treatment, since the fact that she was precluded from writing the test in Hungarian “placed her, on an objective view, at a disadvantage compared with her fellow citizens who had received their school and university education in Romanian.” The case and the arguments put forward by the parties provide a clear insight into the ambiguities surrounding the EU language regime as well as the difficulties faced by minorities whose mother tongue is both an official language of the EU and a minority language with no official recognition in the Member State in which it is spoken.

A magyar törvények és az Európai Unió (2006-2014)

Author(s): Beáta Biró-Nink,Eszter Galgóczi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 3/2018

This paper examines the policy aspects of Europeanization in the Hungarian Parliament. By analyzing all laws adopted in the Hungarian Parliament between 2006 and 2014, we demonstrate the extent to which Eu level policy decisions and recommendations have influenced law-making in Hungary. The comparison of the 2006–2010 and 2010–2014 parliamentary terms shows that the changes in governmental attitudes towards the European union are not reflected in the law-making of the Hungarian Parliament. The Hungarian case suggests that there might be a gap between Eurosceptic rhetoric and legislative actions, as there is very little difference between the pro-Eu socialist governments of 2006-2010 and the Eurosceptic orbán government of 2010–2014 in terms of the proportion of laws of European origin that are adopted in parliament (36 and 34 percent, respectively). Moreover, the Europeanization of law-making has not been limited to the transposition of legally binding Eu acts: the proportion of proactively adopted Europeanized laws did not decrease under the orbán government, and even in those policy areas where the Eu exercises only supporting competences, the influence of Eu level decisions and recommendations did not decrease between 2006-2010 and 2010-2014. The length of the legislative process for Europeanized laws was always longer during the two terms than the number of days required to pass other laws, but this difference further increased under the orbán government (while the general speed of law-making was significantly faster after 2010). It can be concluded that the Europeanization of Hungarian public policy did not stop after orbán and his Fidesz party came to power in 2010, and regardless of the governments’ attitudes towards the Eu, adaptation to the European public policy context also exists in those policy areas where it is not compulsory.

A Minority SafePack európai polgári kezdeményezés és a magyarországi aláírásgyűjtés tapasztalatai

Author(s): Balázs Tárnok / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2019

In the spring of 2017, the organizers of the Minority SafePack European Citizens’ Initiative successfully challenged the European Commission’s decision from 2013 refusing the registration of the initiative at the Court of Justice of the European Union. After the historic success of the organizers at the General Court, in April 2017 the Commission registered the initiative, and thus, the one-year signature collection period started. One year later the organizers revealed the success of the initiative, as 1.3 million signatures were collected to protect the rights of autochthonous national minorities in the European Union. Hungary made huge contribution to the success of the initiative providing half of the signatures collected in the EU, and approximately one million Hungarians supported the initiative in the Carpathian Basin. The author summarizes the most important information about the European Citizens’ Initiative and the Minority SafePack Initiative, giving an insight into the signature collection campaign of the initiative in Hungary, in which he has also played a leading role.

A nemzeti kisebbségi jogok biztosításának alakulása Romániában 1918–2018, avagy „A gyulafehérvári ígéretek megtagadásától a Minority SafePack ellenzéséig – 100 év romániai kisebbségjogi történet”

Author(s): Gyula Fábián / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2018

The question of the situation of national minorities, and implicitly the status of the Hungarian minority are of continued timeliness in the Romanian legal environment. These questions are all the timelier in the year 2018, in the period of the 100-year anniversary of the formation of Greater-Romania. This writing attempts to present the evolution of the main questions of the legal regulation of minority rights in Romania and the answers given to those questions. The legal regime of minority rights proposed on the level of promises on principle at Alba-Iulia in 1918 is presented, as is the history of partial fulfilment and lack of fulfilment of these promises. The environment of legal regulations which constituted the foundation for the policy of assimilation during the inter-war period is presented, as is the detente following the Second World War, the short-term widening of minority rights, the ephemeral territorial autonomy granted to the Hungarian minority followed by the revitalization of oppressive regulation with the aim of assimilation. After the regime change of 1989 the question of minority rights regulation took a new turn in the context of Euro-Atlantic integration which however was not sufficient for the resolution of the situation of national minorities in Romania in a European spirit. The author demonstrates with demographic data the effects of the insufficiencies of minority law on the composition of the population according to different nationalities. As a conclusion it is stated that the regulation of minority rights shows a cyclical oscillation in the course of which the Romanian state, primarily as a response to international pressure, and always reluctantly is willing to improve on the situation of national minorities by means of legislation, while avoiding ensuring collective rights.

A NEW BALKAN STATE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: CROATIA

Author(s): Gabriela-Alexandra Oanţă / Language(s): English / Issue: III/2015

This article addresses the process of Croatia’s accession to the European Union. It is divided into two main parts. The first part presents the negotiations, the intense moments, the concessions, the difficulties and the progress referred to the accession of Croatia to the European Union. In the second part, the issues regarding the Treaty of Accession of Croatia to the European Union and, within it, the issues related to the transitional measures, the safeguard clauses, the institutional and financial arrangements will be examined. In short, it is to analyze to what extent this accession is a real step forward in the deepening of the European Union’s enlargement towards the Western Balkans.

A New Chapter in the EU Counterterrorism Policy? The Main Changes Introduced by the Directive 2017/541 on Combating Terrorism

Author(s): Justyna Maliszewska-­Nienartowicz / Language(s): English / Issue: 37/2017

Taking into account that terrorism has grown in recent years, the EU institutions decided to update the legal framework which provides for fighting this phenomenon. Consequently, the Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA was replaced by the EU Directive 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council on combating terrorism, which should be implemented by the Member States by 8 September 2018. This new act contains a long list of terrorist offences, offences related to a terrorist group, and offences related to terrorist activities. It also stipulates penal sanctions for terrorist offences and provides measures of protection, support and assistance for terrorism victims. This article is a commentary on these groups of provisions and compares them to the previously binding ones. Thus, it indicates the legal changes introduced by the Directive which have to be taken into account by the Member States while implementing it. The comparison of these new provisions with the previously binding ones is also helpful in answering the question posed in the title: Can the Directive 2017/541 be treated as a new chapter in combating terrorism by the European Union?

A Partial Overview of the Data Subjects’ Control Over Their Personal Data under the General Data Protection Regulation

Author(s): Maria-Magdalena Bârsan / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

The legal framework on data protection was updated recently bythe Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to theprocessing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.According to this new regulation natural persons should have control of theirown personal data. As such, the effective protection of personal datathroughout the Union required the strengthening and setting out in detail ofthe rights of data subjects. In view of the novel legal framework, this articleaims to explore some of the data subjects' main rights as to the control overthe processing of their personal data.

A Perspective on Online Donations in the Election Campaign

Author(s): Mihai Lupu / Language(s): English / Issue: 3-4/2019

The online donations, a payment method that has become commonplace in contemporary society, can raise a bunch of problems referring to the electoral campain. The online platform can be managed by an association or a company, both legally constituted as legal entities. The administration involves costs to be covered by commissions. The impediment is the fact that donations to candidates in elections can be made only by natural persons, the donations of legal persons being expressly prohibited by law. The donations being collected by the legal entity, through the platform, the amounts will be transferred to the candidate / financial agent's account by the association. Thus, the competent authority to verify the legality and, possibly, to reimburse the expenses, can draw the conclusion, considering that the law does not expressly regulate this situation, that the donations were made by the legal person and not by the natural persons. But I should point out that there are a number of consequences: non-reimbursement of expenses, contravention liability of the one who received the donations, confiscation of the amounts received as a donation and spent in the election campaign.The aim of this paper is to confirm the lawfulness of online donations for a certain candidate or political party

A piacra lépés feltételei a romániai és uniós tőkepiaci szabályozásokban

Author(s): Zsolt Fegyveresi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2015

The regulation of the capital market is of special importance on national and also EU level. The unified regulation of the capital market is designed to ensure fair business practices and fairness and transparency in regulated market operations. My study aims the description of the entry conditions in the light of Romanian and EU capital market regulations.

A quest for consistency in the law of commercial agency. Loss of the right to remuneration in Polish and European law

Author(s): Piotr Sitnik / Language(s): English / Issue: 71/2017

In a recent judgment in ERGO Poist’ovňa, a.s. v Alžbeta Barlíková, the Court of Justice of the European Union attempted to clarify the ambit of Article 11 of Council Directive of 18 December 1986 on the coordination of the laws of the Member States relating to self-employed commercial agents, that is the circumstances where a commercial agent’s right to remuneration may be extinguished should a negotiated transaction not be executed between the principal and the client. Notably, the Court held that in the event of even partial non-execution of a negotiated contract between the principal and the third party client, provided it happened due to no fault on the part of the principal, the agent’s right to commission is proportionately extinguished. The paper discusses the judgment in the light of previous CJEU case law and the Polish transposition of the said European standards with a view to finding any potential divergences between the two. The paper notes two problems. First, Polish law, as opposed to Slovak law, does not recognize an automatic termination of an insurance contract in the event of default on the part of the customer. Conversely, whether such an effect eventuates is left to contractual discretion of the parties. Second, Polish courts have been recently willing to substitute unjust enrichment for contractual liability even where, it appears, complainants have valid claims under Article 7614 of the Civil Code.

A Regional Approach to Rural Development? Regional and Rural Programmes in Poland 2007–2015

Author(s): Paweł Chmieliński,Marcin Gospodarowicz / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2018

We explore the role of structural factors (i.e. place-based characteristics) inshaping EU policy. Our analysis covered the real expenditure of funds for individualpriority axes in the programmes of both policies in the 2007-2015 period (accordingto N+2 rule) and the change in socio-economic features at the local (powiat, NUTS4)level. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship betweenthe level of per capita expenditure on RDP (rural development programmes) and ROP(regional operational programmes) and selected indicators describing the level of economic,social and demographic development of local government units. We show that in 2007-2013 rural and regional policy instruments were complementary, but also strongly relatedto the characteristics of the region (such as size, population, farmland) and therefore requiregreater adaptation to development opportunities and limitations. We suggest that thereshould be a more a place-based approach in future rural policy design and implementation.

A Resolution in the Spanish Banking Sector: The Case of Banco Popular Español

Author(s): Magdalena Kozińska / Language(s): English / Issue: 6/2018

The restructuring of Banco Popular Español (BPE) through its takeover by Banco Santander provided a valuable example of the first resolution framework application, which allowed for the assessment of its effectiveness. However, similar crisis tools were also utilised in the Spanish banking sector in 2008–2013. Their analysis may provide a valuable contribution to the issue of selecting the most appropriate resolution tools for banks, which can be utilised by Spain and other EU countries when further restructuring their respective banking sectors or managing crises. The aim of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness of the BPE resolution. Additionally, other examples of the application of the “sale of business” tool from the Spanish banking crisis of 2008–2013 were assessed. The conclusions were then used to assess the possible application of similar tools at other banks in Spain and other European countries.

A STATUTORY MODEL OF TRADE UNIONS AT THE EMPLOYER LEVEL IN POLAND

Author(s): ŁAGA Maciej / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

The paper describes a statutory model of trade unions at the employer level inPoland. Freedom of associacion guaranteed in ILO Convention No. 87 includesfreedom to establish union structures. However, the Polish legislator enforces Polishtrade unions to establish so-called ’works union organizations’ at the employer level.Trade unions which does not establish a ’works union organization’, exercisepractically no rights of workers’ represenation at the employer level. In effect Polishlaw is a significant obstacle to development of trade unions in contemporary Poland

A XIII - A CONFERINŢĂ A REŢELEI NAŢIONALE DE JUDECĂTORI-COORDONATORI ÎN MATERIA DREPTULUI UNIUNII EUROPENE – EUROQUOD

Author(s): / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 3-4/2019

Aarhuská úmluva a její implementace do právního řádu České republiky

Author(s): Jaroslav Chyba / Language(s): Czech / Issue: 1/2001

The Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters dates from June 1998. The present paper deals with the comparison of the Aarhus Convention and the corresponding Czech national law. The Aarhus Convention appears to be very compli­cated and many of its provisions contain ambiguity. It is shown that a restrictive reading of the Aar­hus Convention is almost identical with the national law. On the other hand, a more extensive explanation of the Convention would require conceptual changes in the Czech law, concerning namely the review of administrative decisions by the courts of law.

AB Uyum Yasalarının Türkiye’deki İnsan Haklarının Gelişimine Katkıları

Author(s): Haydar Efe,Seyfi Han / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 4/2012

After being officially recognized as a candidate for EU membership at the Helsinki Summit of the European Council realized on 11-12 December 1999, Turkey began to accelerate the adoption of its human rights regulations to the EU standards. Besides, Turkey has also made substantial progress by adopting nine harmonization packages concerning the right to live, prevention of torture and maltreatment as well as the rights of freedom of expression, freedom and security, respect for private life, right to a fair trial, freedom of organization and assembly, anti-discrimination and property right. Such amendments carried out in accordance with the Adjustment Laws of the EU present important milestones in raising Turkey’s human rights standards to the level of modern democracies. This study about the examination of the regulations passed because of Adjustment Laws according to the National Programme obligations reveals how the Adjustment Laws contributed to the improvement of the human rights situation in Turkey in the light of critics stated in the Progress Reports. Besides, this study also attempts to reveal dissonant regulations and implementations by comparing the legislation and the implementation of human rights in our country with ECHR decisions and international standards in this context.