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I’d like to start this post with a joke I heard recently. A speaker at an important conference goes on and on for what feels like ages. At some point a guy just stands up and starts heading for the door. The speaker is taken aback and asks: Excuse me, where are you going? The [...]
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The right to diplomatic and consular protection constitutes an essential entitlement of citizenship of the European Union. This right marks the extension of the institution of EU citizenship to outside the borders of Member States. In that sense, Article 46 of the Charter on Fundamental Rights of the European Union provides: “Every citizen of the [...]
Filed under: Consular cooperation, Diplomatic protection, EU Reform, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe today handed down a decision in which it approved the Lisbon Treaty but delayed its ratification. According to the Court, there are no decisive constitutional objections to the Act Approving the Treaty of Lisbon. The Lisbon treaty is as such compatible with the German basic law (Grundgesetz). Moreover, in [...]
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Today, 1 January 2009, the Czech Republic will take over from France the Presidency of the European Union (official website). The Presidency mainly consists of the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the EU (i.e. organizing and chairing all the meetings of the Council) but has also evolved into some sort of representational duty of the [...]
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During the meeting of the Council of the European Union on 11 and 12 November agreement was reached with regard to a European Economic Recovery Plan (including a 200-billion-euro ($264 billion) pact to revive the battered economy), an energy/climate change package (reaffirming the commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 and [...]
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Today the Czech Constitutional Court rendered its much awaited decision on the relationship between the Czech constitution and the Lisbon Treaty. The Court decided that “[t]he Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and Treaty on establishing the European Community and Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union are not in conflict with the constitutional [...]
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Today on 1st July, France takes over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from Slovenia. The transfer takes place at a crucial point in time for the EU. Following the Irish referendum of 12th June this year, when Ireland turned down the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon (we reported earlier on [...]
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Today the German lower house Parliament (Bundestag) passed the Treaty of Lisbon by 515 supporting votes, 58 against and one abstention. The result is a huge boost for the Reform Treaty, taking into account that the necessary two-thirds majority (408 supporting votes) was surpassed by a wide margin. The upper house of the Parliament (the [...]
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In an effort to ease the free movement of the citizens of the European Union, land and sea border controls with the new member States (i.e. Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia) are being lifted today 21 December 2007 (air borders will follow in March 2008). After it was [...]
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Today the Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community will be signed in Lisbon. The ceremony, at which all 27 heads of State and government of the European Union as well as the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the [...]
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According to a press release of the EU Parliament, the Parliament will work closely with the Commission to conclude the drafting of the EU Reform Treaty, although “some issues still need to be properly discussed“. What is interesting here is the fact that the two organs, which in essence represent the unity (vs. diversity) of [...]
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Starting today, Portugal will take over the presidency in the EU Council (see: presidency website). This is reason enough to take a look back on the achievements of the past 6 month under the German presidency. One has to acknowledge that the presidency did indeed accomplish to strengthen the EU’s transparency and to promote the [...]
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