Author: officialblogunio

European e-Justice in the Digital Decade – building a Digital citizenship (some remarks on the importance of European e-Justice to Digital citizenship effectiveness)

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Joana Covelo de Abreu (Editor and Jean Monnet Module eUjust Coordinator), Alessandra Silveira and Pedro Madeira Froufe (Editors and Key Staff Members of the Jean Monnet Module eUjust)
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The European Union established that, until 2030, it will pursue a Digital Decade as one of its primal public interests. In fact, COVID-19 fastened digitalization path in the European Union since it made digital environment as imperative in our daily lives as offline engagement. However, if it showcased major digital opportunities, it also exposed vulnerabilities of the digital space and enhanced a new phenomenon: the one relating to digital poverty, focusing on those that, by lacking infrastructural and/or educational background, are left outside the digital world. This is one of the visible faces of a larger problem of this decade: the one related to the digital divide which, besides emerging on infrastructural level – not only between well-connected urban areas and rural and remote territories, but also between those that can fully benefit from an enriched, accessible and secure digital space with a full range of services and those who cannot –, it also appears, nowadays, with i) a commercial repercussion, between those businesses with online expression and those that have not reached that point; and ii) a literacy lack, between those that grasp, at least, basic digital skills from those that do not possess them.

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Editorial of March 2022

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By Pedro Madeira Froufe (Editor)
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Europe and war

They do not know that dreams are a constant of life

As concrete and defined as any other thing (…)

They neither know nor dream that dreams command life![1]

(António Gedeão)

The history of European integration is made up of moments of war, manifestations of collective irrationality, and the permanent reaction to and overcoming of such instances. In fact, Europe itself, “the daughter of mythology and war”, was gradually built as a stage for violent and disastrous wars and, simultaneously, for virtuous and great conquests.[2]

The success of this 71-year-long integration can be illustrated by the fact that we are dramatically surprised by Russia’s war against Ukraine! European integration was born out of the debris of World War II, trying to permanently bury it. Its great merit was, after all, and as Jean Monnet said, to try to unite Men, more than to unite States.[3] Thus, we have been living in the illusion that the supreme inhumanity and irrationality of war would be definitively overcome. At least, on the European continent (not only in the European Union) and among sovereign states.

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European Union Taxonomy: what is it and how will it work?

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Nataly Machado (Master’s student in EU Law at UMinho).
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Taxonomy: where does this word come from? “The term is derived from the Greek taxis (“arrangement”) and nomos (“law”). Taxonomy is, therefore, the methodology and principles of systematic botany and zoology and sets up arrangements of the kinds of plants and animals in hierarchies of superior and subordinate groups”[1] In accordance to Maria da Gória F.P.D. Garcia:“it is the verification by scientists emerging from the community and from various quarters, sometimes against each other, that warns of the need to base political decisions on scientific knowledge if the very continuity of life in society is to be preserved.”[2] (free translation)

Let us make a brief Taxonomy’s history background. The first records of biological classification, which gave rise to taxonomy, the area of biology responsible for identifying, naming and classifying living beings, take us back to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). However, it was in the 18th century that the botanist Carolus Linnaeus developed the binomial nomenclature system, written in Latin, which is still used today. A well-known example that identifies us as a species: Homo sapiens.

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Analyzing informal care from an EU perspective

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Maria Inês Costa (Master’s student in Human Rights at UMinho).
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A 2018 report by the European Commission highlights that the European Pillar of Social Rights “makes explicit the commitment to people providing care, including their rights to flexible working and access to care services“,[1] bearing in mind that data suggests that most long-term care in Europe – around 80% –  is provided by informal carers, this is, people who care for dependent or elderly people, to whom they offer support in basic and/or instrumental activities of daily living. These caregivers are not trained in health care and presumably do not receive compensation for doing this work, neither do they possess a formal work agreement.[2]

In fact, the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, whose goals are to be achieved by 2030, addresses the fact that the resilience of long-term care is being put to the test, not only by the additional strain of the pandemic, but also by demographic trends that suggest an increasingly ageing European society, requiring rapid and effective responses in terms of health care services, their quality and distribution across the territory.[3] Eurocarers, the European network representing informal carers and their organizations, reacted positively to the proposal of the European Pillar of Social Rights, highlighting in a written contribution that support provided to informal carers was key to the sustainability of the health and long-term care systems through participation and integration policies focusing on their well-being, employment and empowerment.[4] In a letter sent to the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union in April 2021, the European network insisted on the importance of implementing the principles outlined in the European Pillar of Social Rights, and called for the urgent development of a global EU strategy on care, comprehensive enough to address all aspects of formal and informal care, including the current shortages in the informal care sector and the need to ensure support for informal carers to improve their situation, given their crucial role in providing care across the EU.[5]

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The relevance of judicial institutions in upholding the Rule of Law

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Gonçalo Martins de Matos (Master’s student in Judiciary Law at University of Minho)
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Between the 15th and the 16th of February 2022, two landmark decisions were issued by two distinct courts: one regarding EU law, by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and the other regarding Portuguese law, by the Portuguese Constitutional Court. We shall look at both of them and analyse what they introduce (or establish) regarding the defence of the Rule of Law.

We shall start with the CJEU’s decision. On 16 February 2022, the CJEU rendered its judgment in Cases C-156/21 Hungary v. Parliament and Council and C-157/21 Poland v. Parliament and Council. Both Cases emerged from two actions for annulment brought by the Republic of Poland and Hungary concerning Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget[1]. This Regulation adopted several provisions linking access to EU funding and the respect for the Rule of Law, with a view to “protect the EU budget from financial risks linked to generalised deficiencies as regards the rule of law in the Member States”[2].

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Case C-817/21, Inspecția Judiciară. Compatibility of the organization of an authority competent to carry out the disciplinary investigation of judges, which is under the total control of a single person, with the rules of the rule of law

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Dragoș Călin [Judge at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Co-President of the Romanian Judges' Forum Association, Director of the Judges' Forum Review (Revista Forumul Judecătorilor)].
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The saga of requests for preliminary rulings by Romanian courts on the rule of law and the independence of judges continues, although, under pressure from the Romanian Constitutional Court’s decisions, ordinary judges have begun to refuse to apply European Union law. Failure to comply with the decisions of the Constitutional Court constitutes a disciplinary violation, a legislative solution that allows total disregard of the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, for fear of disciplinary action. A climate of fear among judges was created by disciplinary actions initiated without any reservations by the Judicial Inspection against the judge of the Pitești Court of Appeal who dared to apply the CJEU decision of 18 May 2021, but also the judges who proposed and/or referred to the CJEU in this case.

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Editorial of January 2022

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By Alessandra Silveira (Editor)
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Talking openly about the federative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the EU integration

Jean Monnet stated that Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises. Crisis is the natural condition of Europe, and, as in every crisis the EU has survived in recent times – be it the sovereign debt crisis, the migration crisis, or the identity crisis with Brexit – at the beginning of the health crisis the imminent collapse of the EU was again proclaimed. And oddly enough, or not, those who were most critical of the EU’s initial silence were the same ones who traditionally postulate the least possible integration[1].

However, the existential risk at this time was also sensed by politicians and academics unsuspicious of any Euroskepticism – such as Mario Monti, Jacques Delors or Giscard d’Estaing[2] – which made that historical moment especially unique. The public opinion in the various Member States called for concerted EU action in the area of public health, in accordance with its competencies under the TFEU [both shared competencies (Article 4/2/k) and the so-called complementary competencies (Article 6/a), both set out in Article 168 under the heading “public health”], in order to fight a virus that knew no borders, endangered the health and lives of citizens, and threatened to cause an economic crisis of unimaginable proportions, foreseeably more serious than the recession crisis of the 1930s.

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Summaries of judgments: Consorzio Italian Management e Catania Multiservizi and Catania Multiservizi| IS (Illégalité de l’ordonnance de renvoi)

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Summaries of judgments made in collaboration with the Portuguese judge and référendaire of the CJEU (Nuno Piçarra and Sophie Perez)

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Judgment of the ECJ (Grand Chamber) of 6 October 2021,  Case C-561/19, Consorzio Italian Management and Catania Multiservizi,  EU:C:2021:799

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Article 267 TFEU – Scope of the obligation on national courts or tribunals of last instance to make a reference for a preliminary ruling – Exceptions to that obligation – Criteria – Question on the interpretation of EU law raised by the parties to the national proceedings after the Court has given a preliminary ruling in those proceedings – Failure to state the reasons justifying the need for an answer to the questions referred for a preliminary ruling – Partial inadmissibility of the request for a preliminary ruling

Facts

In proceedings between Consorzio Italian Management and Catania Multiservizi SpA, the successful tenderers for a public contract for cleaning services for the national railway infrastructure, and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana SpA, the Consiglio di Stato (Council of State, Italy) made a reference to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling. The ECJ delivered its judgment in 19 April 2018, Consorzio Italian Management and Catania Multiservizi (C‑152/17, EU:C:2018:264). However, the parties to those proceedings asked the Consiglio di Stato to refer other questions for a preliminary ruling.

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The national judge as judge of the Union (a view of the Judges’ Forum 2021 – CJEU)

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Irene das Neves (Appeal Court Judge of the Northern Administrative Central Court - Tax Litigation Section), Dora Lucas Neto (Appeal Court Judge of the Southern Administrative Central Court - Administrative Litigation Section), and Isabel Silva (Judge of the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Braga - Tax Litigation)
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The reference for a preliminary ruling, provided for in Article 19(3)(b) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and Article 267 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), is a fundamental mechanism of EU law.[1] It is an “incident” within national proceedings that obliges the national judge to stay the proceedings because it is faced with the need to obtain a “preliminary” ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the interpretation of EU law or the validity of the acts of its bodies, institutions or agencies, with a view to the proper administration of justice within the EU. To that extent, the national courts playing the role of guardians of EU law, ensuring the effective and homogenous application of the law, and seeking to avoid divergent interpretations by the various courts of the Member States.

It was on this theme of the reference, focused on the reference for the interpretation of EU law, that the President of the CJEU, Koen Lenaerts, opened the 2021 Judges’ Forum, which was held at the CJEU from 21 to 23 November and brought together judges from the courts of first instance and the appeal courts of the Member States, recalling that the reference for a preliminary ruling is an instrument of judicial cooperation by means of which the national judge and the EU judge are called upon, within the scope of their respective powers, to contribute to a decision ensuring the uniform application of EU law by the Member States.

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Blockchain: a small introduction and a legal perspective

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Catarina Ferreira (Master’s student in European Union Law at the School of Law of the University of Minho)
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1. The blockchain technology

Blockchain is commonly known as the underlying technology used in Bitcoin. This “new” and revolutionary technology, whose roots are ancient, has been introduced (as we know it) in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoins’ white paper. In the white paper, Nakamoto presented a decentralized payment model based on cryptography and using blockchain technology. This idea would allow a move forward from the traditional model, based on trust and relying on an impartial third, and achieving currency decentralization (being possible to perform direct transactions between two parts).

It cannot be denied that blockchain is a new paradigm, a new information technology with tiered technical levels and multiple applications for any form of asset[1], going beyond the financial sector. Nowadays, blockchain’s impacts are being compared to the ones that followed the development of the Internet. So, understanding what is blockchain and the ideology behind it, is a requirement for those who want to apply the law without damaging the technology.

Before clarifying what blockchain is, it should be noticed that since Bitcoin’s blockchain many others have arisen. Nonetheless, there are commonalities between all blockchains, and in this work, we’ll be discussing all those commonalities and not a specific blockchain. 

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