Environmental Defence Society (EDS)’s Post

🇲🇰🤝🇪🇺 The implementation of the Reform Agenda, together with the continued alignment of our legal and institutional system with that of the EU, will provide the necessary basis for accelerated, substantive EU integration.

✒ Find out more about the volume and complexity of EU laws and the number of legislative proposals put forward by the Commission per year or per term by reading Kamil Sekut and J. Scott Marcus' latest Analysis ⤵ https://lnkd.in/dSvmGP-t

As we approach the hearings for the Commissioners-designate, Renew Europe has released a 10-point action plan to tackle growing threats to democracy and judicial independence in several Member States. This plan outlines clear steps to reinforce the EU’s ability to respond and ensure that democratic values are protected across the Union. Key proposals include:  📌 Extending the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism to cover all EU funding programmes. 📌 Introducing 'smart conditionality' to redirect funds directly to communities and civil society, bypassing governments that undermine democratic principles. 📌 Creating a single EU mechanism for annual monitoring of democracy, rule of law, and fundamental rights. 📌 Expanding the European Public Prosecutor's Office’s mandate and funding to combat corruption. MEP Moritz Körner, who initiated the position paper, emphasizes: “The EU must consistently apply its tools to protect the rule of law. We must tie our financial resources to democratic standards to maintain the Union’s credibility and cohesion.” Read the full position paper: https://lnkd.in/dT988vm2

The "certainity" of Treaty principles This article from the Spinoff argues that there is certainty and stability in the interpretation of the Treaty Principles: “The status quo provides a higher degree of certainty about what the Treaty principles are and how they operate in New Zealand law.” The author, Carwyn Jones, argues that the new Treaty Principles bill brings greater uncertainty. For the various reasons behind the Treaty Principls Bill, it looks as if removing uncertainty is not convincing. Have a look at the Public Sector Journal, published later this month, for a more detailed analysis of the Treaty principles by this author. https://lnkd.in/gtX4Nuyy #treatyofwaitangi #treatyprinciples #publicsector

🇬🇪 "At the end of the day, this is all about keeping Georgian Dream in power. So when having to decide between the EU and staying in power, Georgian Dream picks power," asserts GMF Senior VP for Democracy Laura Thornton. ⏩ Watch her full interview for Deutsche Welle below: https://bit.ly/3UH5qBy

BRG experts responded to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Draft Guidelines on the application of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to exclusionary conduct. Our contributing experts welcome the initiative of the Commission to adopt formal guidelines which provide courts, competition authorities, undertakings and practitioners with greater certainty and transparency regarding the enforcement of Article 102 but are concerned that the tone set by the Draft Guidelines could lead to largely different interpretations, increasing litigation risk, leading to longer investigations and, overall, less effective and predictable enforcement. Read our experts’ response >>> https://lnkd.in/gVZP7vEn This response is made on behalf of Aleksandra Boutin 🇺🇦, Xavier Boutin 🇺🇦, Adina Claici, Mario Denni, Konstantin Ebinger, Laurent Eymard, Cyril Hariton and David Parker. Mario and Cyril were our drafting leads. #competition #article102 #enforcement

My colleagues and I have put in a response to the Draft 102 Exclusionary Abuse Guidelines (link below). In short, we do not think that they are a step forward. Personally, I am particularly concerned about the use of "competition on the merits" as an underlying principle for determining what constitutes an exclusionary abuse. It seems to me that this is a content-free phrase that adds little. My preferred guiding principle would relate exclusionary abuse to the use of a dominant firm's non-replicable advantages as a focus for competition (see comments where I have posted the link). There has clearly been a lot of controversy about the Draft Guidelines, and the recent CJEU Judgment in Intel suggests that the direction of travel that the Draft Guidelines propose may not be satisfactory for the courts. It will be interesting to see whether