A e zvogëlon Traktati i Lisbonës rolin e Shtetit për një Politikë të Jashtme të përbashkët?

Author(s): Eglantina Golemi,Erjona Canaj / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 13/2014

Politika e Jashtme e Përbashkët e BE-së është, pa dyshim, kryefjala dhe njëkohësisht një nga sfidat e BE-së në ditët e sotme. Vendimet që merren apo ndryshimet që bëhen në këtë drejtim, kanë një impakt të drejtpërdrejtë në imazhin dhe rolin e BE-së si faktor ndërkombëtar. BE-ja vepron në katër fusha të politikës së jashtme: I) politika e përbashkët tregtare; II) politika e asociimit, partneritetit, bashkëpunimit dhe fqinjësisë; III) zhvillimi, bashkëpunimi teknik dhe ndihma humanitare si dhe IV) dimensioni i jashtëm i politikave të tjera të brendshme. Në këtë studim synohet të evidentohet nëse Traktati i Lisbonës ka ndikuar në uljen e rolit të shtetit për një politikë të jashtmë autonome, duke trajtuar si shembuj dy nga fushat kryesore të saj si politika e përbashkët tregtare dhe politika e zhvillimit, bashkëpunimit teknik dhe ndihmës humanitare. Nëse politika e përbashkët tregtare tashmë është kompetencë ekslkuzive e Bashkimit Europian, politika për zhvillim, bashkëpunim teknik dhe ndihma humanitare janë kompetencë konkurruese midis Shteteve Anëtare dhe BE-së. Ekskluziviteti u përdor nga Traktati si mjet ligjor me anë të të cilit vërtetohet rënia e rolit të shtetit në një politikë të jashtme autonome, por dhe kompetencat e përbashkëta po sfidojnë hapur praktikën ligjore për nga funksionimi i tyre. Politika e Jashtme e Përbashkët sot përbën një sfidë të vërtetë të politikës botërore.

A European Doppelstaat?

Author(s): Stephen Holmes / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2003

The constitutional reform debate is not the only open-ended process muddying the future of the European Union. The full effects, in particular, of eastern enlargement on the contours and internal dynamics of the EU after 2004 remain dimly perceived. But in Eastern Europe itself, partly under the influence of nationalist populist politicians, a clear but unappealing picture of an enlarged EU has begun to crystallize. Fears of being marginalized inflame worries of a last-minute decision to block enlargement. But the same fears also fuel concern that the postcommunist applicant countries will, indeed, accede to the EU as expected, but under especially unfavorable or unfair terms. [...]

A few remarks on the interpretation of European company law

Author(s): Jacek Napierała / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2016

The application of European company law by domestic courts entails prior interpretation of EU legislation. Firstly, the manner of interpretation of European company law is affected by both the specific nature of European company law and l’acquis communautaire. Secondly, interpretation methods are subject to the principle of uniform interpretation, which aims to safeguard uniform understanding and application of l’acquis EU-wide. Thirdly, when undertaking pro-European interpretation one must (i) have regard to all domestic methods of interpretation, (ii) in line with the blanket ban on contra legem interpretation, and (iii) bear in mind the purpose and wording of a directive serving as a point of reference for pro-European interpretation, as far as possible.

A Few Remarks on the Role of the Principle of Legality in the Romanian Legal System

Author(s): Cătălin Constantinescu-Mărunţel,Teodor Manea / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2022

This paper seeks to outline the meaning, the role and the limits of the principle of legality according to the Romanian legal system. Firstly, a few preliminary questions regarding the nature and the role of legal principles in general have to be answered. This is necessary in order to provide a reader which is not familiarized with this national set of norms with a general understanding of the concepts used during the analysis of the proposed topic. Having achieved this, one may subsequently proceed to analysing the general understanding of the principle of legality and its main coordinates in the Romanian legal system. One would have to remember that the latter is a European continental (or civil) legal system, belonging to a country which is a member of the European Union, of the United Nations and of the Council of Europe. This translates into the fact that the paper does also have to analyse the impact of the international public law on the way the principle of legality is currently comprehended and applied internally. All these being said, the third and main section of the paper concentrates on how is this concept applied in a few of the legal domains. The paper is mainly interested in the public implications of the principle; therefore, the analysis will try to discover the main ways in which the rule of law culture shapes the notion of public power and its exercise. The paper will end with a few final considerations regarding the main ideas discovered during the previous sections.

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 General Summary on Geo-Blocking in the EU

Author(s): Lilla Nóra Kiss / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Geo-blocking is the new phenomenon of the current digital era, which affects our everyday lives. Geo-blocking is a modern form of discrimination which is considered a geographically based restriction for consumers that may be a ban for free movements and therefore affect the single market of the European Union, too. The European Commission adopted the Digital Single Market (DSM) Strategy in 2015 by which a new path forward to innovation was taken down. The new EU Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen aims not only the continuation of the development of the DSM to improve our digital welfare, but introduced the concept of the promotion of European way of life which is strongly interlinked with the digital aspects, too. As the human perspectives of our lifestyles came up to a higher level of policymaking, digital readiness, skills, and geo-discrimination might also be part of current debates. The research intends to present the geo-blocking as a new issue for the society, politics and economy, then broadly summarizes its definitions and the latest solutions for the treatment of unjustified restrictions in the EU.

A hagyaték átadása – az öröklési bizonyítvány a román Polgári törvénykönyv és az Európai Parlament és Tanács 650/2012/EU-rendelete tükrében

Author(s): Gabriella Eleonóra Bonyhai / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2021

Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council in matters of succession is based on the principles of uniformity and predictability. The succession procedure should be governed by a single statutory provision in each Member State, uniformly with regard to all types of property, in terms of quality of succession, provisions on the opening and place of the succession, ineligibility for inheritance, survivor’s rights. The harmonization that has begun runs counter to the different national laws and regulations of the Member States, which will only be possible to approximate over time, but uniform rules would significantly facilitate and resolve the legal problems that arise in succession proceedings.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE CRIMINALIZATION OF OMISSION IN CRIMINAL LAW

Author(s): Carmen Adriana Domocoş / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2018

Legal thinking with regard to omission has evolved over time, and, for a long time, inaction was not criminalized in the same way as action. The Romanian Criminal Code of 2009 regulates for the first time in our legislation the principles of liability for omissive acts and situations in which there is criminal liability for an act committed by omission, in a similar way to other European criminal codes.

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 New European Policy on Legal Migration - Enhancing Legal Pathways to Europe

Author(s): Eleodor Pîrvu / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2019

Establishing safe and legal pathways of admission to complement resettlement programmes is therefore an essential step towards securing a meaningful response to the current unprecedented global displacement situation. The need to provide increased and complementary pathways for refugee admission is reflected in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, which was adopted by all 193 Member States of the United Nations at the UN General Assembly in September 2016. Countries, including the Member States of the European Union, expressed their intention to “expand the number and range of legal pathways available for refugees to be admitted to or resettled in third countries.” The article will present the implications of the EU-Commission’s proposal for seeking protection in the EU and will research about resettlement as a protective tool and durable solution for refugees. Answers to the actual position of the EU governments towards new policy proposal and what is the future for admission programmes to EU will be analyzed.

A New Model of Appeal Proceedings in Criminal Cases: Acceleration v. Fairness? A Few Remarks from the Perspective of the Standards of Protecting Human Rights

Author(s): Małgorzata Wąsek-Wiaderek / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The purpose of this study is to present and evaluate the main changes to the appeal proceedings model introduced in the last few years to the Polish criminal proceedings in order to accelerate it and, thereby, satisfy the requirements of Article 6 (1) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The article presents arguments supporting the thesis whereby these have weakened the right of the defendant to appeal against the judgement. Under the currently applicable regulations, it is permissible that an appellate court may impose a penalty for the first time which cannot be subject to an effective appellate review. Such a solution may raise doubts as to its compliance with Article 14 (5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The article also formulates a thesis whereby the newly introduced measure – a complaint against the cassatory judgement of the appellate court – contrary to preliminary fears, has not in fact “blown up” the system of appeal measures in the Polish criminal proceedings. At the same time, despite the relatively small scope of its use, it may contribute to strengthening the appeal – as opposed to the revisory – model of appellate proceedings and thus accelerating the criminal proceedings. This thesis is based on the research of all complaints brought to the Supreme Court in 2016–2019.

A Paradigm Shift within the Romanian Victim Support System

Author(s): Mihaela Tomiță,Roxana Ungureanu,Adina Schwartz / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2020

As a response to the Victims’ Directive and to the first European Strategy on victim protection, issued by the European Commission, the Romanian legislator has enabled the development of a first ever victim support system in Romania. The article reflects the research findings on the newly created Romanian victim support and protection system. It provides an overview of the national legislative framework in victim’s protection, by highlighting the recent legislative changes and their effects at grass root level. Also, it describes the newly developed model to identify, refer and protect victims of all crimes. Eventually, the authors reveal the findings of a qualitative research involving specialist in victim support and victims of different violent crimes on how the recently developed system is addressing their individual needs. Based on the research findings, the authors propose a series of recommendations to address the gaps identified through the qualitative research.