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The European Commission calls on Bulgaria, Spain and Poland to correctly transpose the EU rules on the presumption of innocence and the right to be present at trial. The European Commission decided to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice to Spain (INFR(2024)2033) and Poland (INFR(2024)2034), as well as to send an additional letter of formal notice to Bulgaria (INFR(2023)2093) for failing to correctly transpose the Directive on the strengthening of the presumption of innocence and the right to be present at the trial in criminal proceedings ( Directive 2016/343/EU ). The Directive is one of  six Directives  adopted by the EU to create common minimum standards ensuring that the fair trial  rights of suspects and accused persons  in criminal proceedings are sufficiently protected across the EU. The Commission considers that certain national transposition measures notified by the three Member States fall short of the requirements of the Directive. The C

According to the Judgment of the Court of Justice in Joined Cases C-684/22 to C-686/22 (Stadt Duisburg), EU law does not, in principle, preclude the automatic loss of German nationality in the event of recovery of Turkish nationality. However, where that loss is also liable to entail the loss of EU citizenship, it must be possible to carry out an individual examination of the consequences of that loss for the person concerned. A number of Turkish nationals have challenged before a German court the loss of their German nationality, which they acquired by naturalisation in 1999. In order to become German, they had had to renounce their Turkish nationality. However, after their naturalisation in Germany, and more specifically after 1 January 2000, they reacquired Turkish nationality at their own request. As a result of an amendment to the German legislation which entered into force on 1 January 2000, that recovery of Turkish nationality resulted in the automatic loss [1] of German na

According to the Judgment of the General Court in Case T-255/23 (Escobar v EUIPO) the name Pablo Escobar may not be registered as an EU trade mark. The public would associate that name with drug trafficking and narco-terrorism.  On 30 September 2021, Escobar Inc., established in Puerto Rico (United States), filed an application with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for registration of the word sign Pablo Escobar as an EU trade mark for a wide range of goods and services.  The Colombian national named Pablo Escobar, who was born on 1 December 1949 and died on 2 December 1993, is presumed to be a drug lord and a narco-terrorist who founded and was the sole leader of the Medellín cartel (Colombia).  EUIPO rejected the application for registration on the ground that the mark was contrary to public policy and to accepted principles of morality. It relied on the perception of the Spanish public, as it is the most familiar with Pablo Escobar due to the links between Spa

Ministry of Migration and Asylum received administrative fine and GDPR compliance order following an own-initiative investigation by the  Data Protection Authority of Greece. At the end of 2021, the Greek Supervisory Authority (SA) became aware of a decision of the Greek Government regarding the development and implementation of the “Centaur” programme by the Hellenic Ministry of Migration and Asylum in order to control the reception and accommodation facilities of third country nationals on the Aegean islands.  The Greek SA also received a request for information on border surveillance technologies from the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE Committee), while a request for investigation and opinion on the procurement and implementation of the “Hyperion” and “Centaur” systems in reception and accommodation facilities for asylum seekers was submitted to the Authority by civil society organizations in February 2022. In July 2022, the

United Nations Office for Project Services seeks Senior Legal Advisor for its office in Copenhagen, Denmark. UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services) in Copenhagen, Denmark is an operational arm of the United Nations – supports the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by successfully implementing its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. The Legal Group The Legal Group (LG) advises UNOPS management, project offices, regional offices and other specialized units within UNOPS on institutional, commercial, and administrative law matters.  Legal Advisors at UNOPS provide legal advice in the areas of public international law, dispute resolution, commercial law and administrative law.  This legal advice covers a wide range of topics, including host-country agreements and privileges and immunities, disputes with external parties, administrative/HR law matters, engagements, partnership agreements, grants, procurement

The ECHR has delivered Grand Chamber rulings in three climate change cases. In one of them the Court found that the Convention encompasses a right to effective protection by the State authorities from the serious adverse effects of climate change on lives, health, well-being and quality of life. In Grand Chamber's judgment in the case of Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland (application no. 53600/20) the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority of sixteen votes to one, that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights; and, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 (access to court).  The case concerned a complaint by four women and a Swiss association, Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz, whose members are all older women concerned about the consequences of global warming on their living conditions and health. They consider that the Swiss authorities

Failure of an airline company to inform the data subject of completion of erasure request and failure of transparency obligations resulted in the imposition of a fine equal to EUR 13,244. The Data Subject lodged her complaint with the Polish SA stating that she requested the data controller to erase all her personal data in the online interface provided by the data controller on 23 October 2018. In previous cases it has already been identified that the Hungarian SA is the LSA for the data controller, therefore case has been transferred.  Based on the data controller’s statement and the screenshot made by it on the relevant part of the IT system used to administer erasure requests, the data controller erased the Data Subject’s account on 23 November 2018, but failed to inform the Data Subject thereof prior to 6 March 2019.  The Hungarian SA founded that the data controller infringed Article 12(3) GDPR because it failed to inform the Data Subject of the action taken based on the reques

On 31 March, Bulgaria and Romania became Schengen members: the Schengen rules will apply in both Member States including on issuing Schengen visas and controls at the internal air and sea borders will be lifted. The European Commission strongly welcomes this achievement, which follows the historic Council decision of December 2023. The Schengen accession of these two Member States will make the common area more attractive by significantly expanding the world's largest common area without internal border controls. Since last December, both Member States have taken all necessary measures to ensure a smooth application of the Schengen rules as from 31 March 2024. The Cooperation Frameworks launched earlier this March by the Commission together with Bulgaria and Romania build on the successful implementation of the pilot projects for fast asylum and return procedures. With these Cooperation Frameworks, Romania and Bulgaria will further contribute to strengthening the cooperation on