Month: October 2022

“Brexit means Brexit” for the EU citizenship rights of British nationals – The Court of Justice conclusions in Préfet du Gers

On By officialblogunioIn Case notes1 Comment 
By Joana Gama Gomes (Assistant Professor of European and International Law, University of Lisbon School of Law)
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The United Kingdom (UK) officially withdrew from the European Union (EU) on February 1st, 2020, the date in which the Withdrawal Agreement (WA)[1] entered into force. As a result, and after the end of the transition period, all EU law stopped being applicable to and in the United Kingdom, including the provisions of EU law regarding the rights attached to EU citizenship.

EU citizenship is established in Article 9 TEU, which prescribes that “Every national of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union”. In particular, in accordance with Articles 20 (2) (b) and 22 (1) TFEU, EU citizenship grants its citizens the right to vote and to stand as a candidate in municipal elections in the Member State of residence, under the same conditions as nationals of that State.

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EU Carbon Border Tax Mechanism: a potential Boon or Bane for India

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By Aaiysha Topiwala (third year undergraduate student at Gujarat National Law University - India)
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As the world grapples with the rising frequency of catastrophic climate effects, all the nations have realized the urgent need for global efforts to tackle the mammoth challenge of climate change. In this scenario, the European Union (EU) has emerged as an environmental leader at the global level. The environmental laws and policies adopted by the EU are considered one of the most ambitious policies in the world. The recent policy brought out by the EU last year is yet another proof of its determination to remain at the forefront of tackling climate change. The European Parliament, in July 2021, announced that it would levy a carbon border tax on all imported carbon products. After almost a year of the announcement of this policy and with less than half a year left for the transition period set to begin in 2023, it becomes essential to revisit this policy and determine its effect on India along with the possible solutions.

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Editorial of October 2022

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By Editorial Team
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Digital citizenship and technological sustainability (CitDig) –
Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence

As of October 1, 2022 the University of Minho (UMinho) is running a “Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence” coordinated by Alessandra Silveira (Editor of UNIO’s blog) entitled “Digital citizenship and technological sustainability: achieving CFREU effectiveness in the digital decade” (CitDig) under the Erasmus+ Programme. UMinho was deemed to be in a position to investigate pressing issues around the digital decade, advancing and developing synergies among various areas. What is the background and rationale of the CitDig Centre of Excellence?

Digitalization is understood as the way in which many domains of social life are restructured around digital communication and media infrastructures – or the way in which these media structure, shape and influence the contemporary world.[1] In the Communication “2030 Digital Compass: the European way for the Digital Decade” [COM(2021) 118 final], the European Commission (EC) notes that digital technologies and services must respect the values intrinsic to the “European way”. Furthermore, the human-centered, secure and open digital environment should enable people to enforce their fundamental rights.

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Again: on the prohibition of generalised and indiscriminate retention of metadata for the purpose of combating serious crime

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By Alessandra Silveira (Editor) and Tiago Sérgio Cabral (Managing Editor)
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The CJEU has recently added further pieces to the puzzle of retention of traffic and location data by providers of electronic communications services for the purpose of making them available to competent national authorities in the fight against serious crime.[1] In addition to reiterating its constant jurisprudence on the matter, this CJEU judgment is particularly valuable to Member States that are legislating in order to adapt to EU law – as is the case of Portugal (judgment of 20 September 2022, SpaceNet, joined cases C-793/19 and C‑794/19, ECLI:EU:C:2022:702).[2]

In several Recitals of the judgment, the CJEU left some clues as to its resistance to the generalised and indiscriminate retention of metadata, and it is possible to perceive that it lies in the uncontrolled profiling of users of electronic communications services. Profiling is often used to make such predictions about individuals. It involves the collection of information about a person and the assessment of their characteristics or behavioural patterns in order to place them in a certain category or group and drawing upon that an inference or prediction – be it of their ability to perform a task, of their interest or presumed behaviour.[3]

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