News

Court of Justice of the EU on drinking water policy: Member States are obliged not to authorise a project that may cause a deterioration in the quality of a body of water

  • 2023/03/13
  • kutatocsoport5

According to the rules, the approval of a project is only possible when the implementation does not adversely affect the quality of the drinking water provided to the inhabitants in the affected area. The Regional Office for Mining, Geology and Raw Materials, Cottbus (Germany) approved an application submitted by Lausitz Energie Bergbau AG for the construction of an artificial lake, the overflow of which would flow into the river Spree. Upon creation of the lake, the water leaving the overflow would have a significantly higher sulphate concentration than the water already in the Spree. Read more... (Ildikó Krivanics)

Recent developments in the Article 7 proceedings against Hungary and Poland

  • 2022/06/27
  • kutatocsoport5

On 5 May 2022, the European Parliament called for the Council and the Commission to take more action to address the deterioration of EU values in Hungary and Poland in a resolution adopted with 426 votes to 133 and 37 abstentions. Despite the deteriorating situation in both countries in recent years, member states have thus far avoided voting to determine whether there is “a clear risk of a serious breach” of the EU’s common values. Read more... (Daniel Szilágyi)

CJEU: national principles of procedural law cannot preclude courts from reviewing potentially unfair terms in consumer contracts

  • 2022/06/23
  • kutatocsoport5

In a series of judgments adopted 17 May 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union (Court) further developed its interpretation of the provisions of Directive 93/13/EEC on unfair terms in consumer contracts, particularly with regard to those national procedural principles which might impede the effective exercise of the rights that individuals – specifically, consumers – derive from EU law. Read more... (Daniel Szilágyi)

What Comes Next in the Fight against Fraud? – Questions Arise over the Transposition of the PIF Directive

  • 2022/05/29
  • kutatocsoport5

On May 19, 2022, the European Commission decided to initiate an infringement procedure against Hungary, alleging that the given Member State failed to “correctly transpose” Directive (EU) 2017/1371, providing the European Union (‘EU’) rules on the fight against fraud to the Union’s financial interests by means of criminal law, also known as the PIF Directive. Besides Hungary, Estonia, Malta, and the Netherlands also landed in hot water over this issue, upon receiving letters of formal notice assigned with identical reasons, marking the commencement of infringement procedures. Read more... (Petra Ágnes Kanyuk)

Tax ruling: Advocate General Priit Pikamäe urges the Court to annul the judgment in the Fiat State aid case

  • 2022/01/11
  • kutatocsoport5

The Advocate General, in his Opinion delivered on 16 December 2021, proposes that the Court allow the appeal brought by Ireland and annul the Commission’s decision declaring aid which Luxembourg granted to Fiat as being incompatible with the internal market. Read more... (Krisztina Széles)

European Parliament declares Polish Constitutional Tribunal illegitimate in the face of threat to the primacy of EU law

  • 2021/11/18
  • kutatocsoport5

In a resolution adopted on 21 October, the European Parliament (EP) declared the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland as not only “lacking legal validity and independence” but also “unqualified to interpret the Constitution of Poland”. This scathing denunciation comes as an answer to the 7 October decision of the Constitutional Tribunal that found the provisions of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) incompatible with the Polish Constitution on multiple grounds, thus posing a direct challenge to the established principle of the primacy of EU law. Read more... (Daniel Szilágyi)

Three new cases: State aid for airlines - were they justified in view of the impact of the pandemic or not?

  • 2021/06/22
  • kutatocsoport5

In view of the economic difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it was unthinkable for the European Commission not to ease restrictions on State aid. As such, the European Commission approved unprecedented forms of State aid to save the epidemic-struck European economy. In this context, the governments of the member states have poured billions of euros into the airline industry, which has been hit particularly hard by virus-related restrictions and lockdowns. According to Ryanair, State aid given to national airlines constitutes unfair competition; as such, the airline has filed 16 lawsuits against the Commission for allowing the provision of State aid to individual airlines. On 19 May, the General Court has delivered three judgments, deciding to uphold Ryanair’s actions for the annulment of Commission State aid decisions in respect of TAP and KLM, but dismissed the action concerning Spain. Read more... (Krisztina Széles)

Amazon won, but Engie lost the court appeal in Luxembourg tax cases

  • 2021/05/27
  • kutatocsoport5

The European General Court has ruled that Amazon’s cost-sharing arrangement in Luxembourg did not breach EU competition law. The General Court says that there was no selective advantage in favour of a Luxembourg subsidiary of the Amazon group; as such, it annuls the Commission’s decision declaring the aid incompatible with the internal market. Accordingly, Amazon will not be expected to pay 250 million euros in back taxes. As regards Engie in Luxembourg, the General Court has confirmed the Commission's decision that a set of tax rulings issued by Luxembourg artificially reduced Engie's tax bill by around 120 million euros. Read more... (Krisztina Széles)

Advocate General: national legislation or judicial practice precluding judges from referring questions to the Court of Justice is incompatible with EU law

  • 2021/05/07
  • kutatocsoport5

According to Advocate General Pikamäe’s Opinion in Case C-564/19 IS, delivered on 15 April 2021, the Hungarian legislation enabling the public prosecutor to bring an action before the Supreme Court (Kúria) to declare a lower criminal court’s order for reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union unlawful, and the decision of the Supreme Court establishing that unlawfulness, are incompatible with the principle of the primacy of EU law, as they undermine the power of the lower court to refer questions to Court of Justice. As such, in the opinion of the Advocate General, the decision of the Kúria and the underlying national legislation must be set aside. Read more... (Daniel Szilágyi)

CJEU: The Hungarian and the Polish progressive taxes do not infringe EU law on State aid

  • 2021/04/10
  • kutatocsoport5

On 16 March 2021, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that the Polish tax on the retail sector and the Hungarian tax on advertisements do not infringe EU law on State aid. Both judgments dismiss the Commission’s appeals against the rulings of the General Court. Read more... (Krisztina Széles)

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