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By Efi Thoma, Senior Legal Advisor One of the most fundamental EU principles is safeguarding a healthy work-life balance. EU law and specifically the pertinent directive on working hours, is based on the doctrine that work environment is being regulated in order to ensure that employees work maximum 48 working hours per week , enjoy minimum 11 consecutive hours of daily rest , and a t least 4   weeks paid annual leave per year . The new working conditions adopted in Europe and around the globe in the direct aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak have focused on remote working for the majority of the employees. However, teleworking has never been so popular before and used at such extensive levels. Recent research has shown that 27% of people who work from home worked outside working hours , and employees who regularly telework are more than twice as likely to work more than the maximum working hours set down in the EU’s working time directive than those who don’t , resulting

By Christina Poursanidou, Lawyer Money laundering scandals during the last years have created much uncertainty about the effectiveness of the EU-Anti-Money Laundering Directives (AMLDs) and the presumption that transparency over the companies structure will lead to the the prevention of future similar cases. Despite the fact that World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as Financial Action Task Force (FATF) were discussing the need of bringing to light the companies’ ultimate beneficial owners, the EU legislators made the creation of the Register of the Beneficial Ownership of legal entities mandatory for each Member State. More specifically, according to the Article 30 of the 4th AMLD “Member States shall ensure that corporate and other legal entities incorporated within their territory are required to obtain and hold adequate, accurate and current information on their beneficial ownership, including the details of the beneficial interests held.” Similarly, in order to

On 10 February 2021, the Criminal Asset Bureau of the Irish National Police (An Garda Síochána) took action against a criminal gang suspected of large-scale money laundering.  Fund transfers in excess of €4 million were identified from other jurisdictions to Irish bank accounts linked to members of this criminal network. The gang is believed to have made this money from illegal activity across Europe.  The search operation in the cities of Tipperary and Kilkenny involved searches of 4 residential properties and 1 business premises, as a result of which €100 000 in cash and a car worth €75 000 were seized. A total of 16 bank accounts linked to members of the crime group were also frozen. The accounts contained cumulative funds of €540,000.  Such results were made possible thanks to the model of non-conviction based forfeiture operated by the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau. In this case, Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) pieced together the intelligence provide

The share of children among detected trafficking victims has tripled while the share of boys has increased five times in the past 15 years. Girls are mainly trafficked for sexual exploitation, while boys are used for forced labour, according to the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, launched by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on 2.2.2021. In 2018 about 50,000 human trafficking victims were detected and reported by 148 countries. However, given the hidden nature of this crime, the actual number of victims trafficked is far higher. The Report shows traffickers particularly target the most vulnerable, such as migrants and people without jobs. The COVID-19-induced recession is likely to expose more people to the risk of trafficking. “ Millions of women, children and men worldwide are out of work, out of school and without social support in the continuing COVID-19 crisis, leaving them at greater risk of human trafficking. We need targeted action to stop crimin

In its Judgment in Joined Cases C-422/19 and C-423/19 (Johannes Dietrich and Norbert Häring v Hessischer Rundfunk) the European Court of Justice ruled that a euro area Member State can oblige its administration to accept payments in cash, but can also limit that payment option on public interest grounds. Such a limitation may in particular be justified where payment in cash is likely to involve the administration in unreasonable expense because of the very high number of persons liable to pay. Two German citizens who were liable to pay a radio and television licence fee in the Land of Hesse (Germany) offered to pay it to Hessischer Rundfunk (Hesse’s broadcasting body) in cash. Invoking its regulations on the procedure for payment of radio and television licence fees, which preclude any possibility of paying the licence fee in cash, [1] Hessischer Rundfunk refused their offer and sent them payment notices. The two German citizens brought an action against those payment notices and th

In ECtHR  judgment in the case of Ramazan Demir v. Turkey (application no. 68550/17) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression: freedom to receive information and ideas) of the European Convention on Human Rights.  The case concerned the prison authorities’ refusal to grant a request for access to certain Internet sites, lodged by Mr Demir in the course of his pre-trial detention in Silivri Prison in 2016. Mr Demir, a lawyer, wished to access the Internet sites of the European Court of Human Rights, the Constitutional Court and the Official Gazette, with a view to preparing his own defence and following his clients’ cases.  The Court considered that since prisoners’ access to certain sites containing legal information had already been granted under Turkish law for the purposes of training and rehabilitation, the restriction of Mr Demir’s access to the above-mentioned sites, which contained only legal infor

Facial recognition is the automatic processing of digital images containing individuals' faces for identification or verification of those individuals by using face templates. The uses of this technology are many and varied, some of which may seriously infringe the rights of data subjects. For example, integrating facial recognition technologies to existing surveillance systems poses a serious risk to the rights to privacy and protection of personal data as well as to other fundamental rights since the uses of these technologies do not always require the awareness or cooperation of the individuals whose biometric data is processed, considering for instance the possibility of accessing digital images of individuals on the Internet. On 28 January 2021, the  Committee of Convention 108  has adopted  Guidelines on facial recognition  that provide a set of reference measures that governments, facial recognition developers, manufacturers, service providers and entities using facial rec

By Evlampia Tsolaki, Attorney at Law (briefly added complementary thoughts) The pandemic has had an immense impact upon the prevailing working patterns, by instigating a significant shift of the employment place from business-premises to home since while before   its outbreakonly one in ten people worked from home [1] , nowadays it is estimated that approximately 40%of the workforce provides their services from home [2] . In this fashion, the so-called teleworking, otherwise remote-working or home-office in the German legal order, in the framework of which employees conduct their duties outside business-establishment and specifically primarily from home, has been transformed not only to a basic, but additionally to a desirable form of employment as it ensures employees’ protection from the coronavirus’ propagation. It is apparent that the aforementioned modification of the working-environment has challenged the already so far existing concept of the employment relationship as the legal

The International Court of Justice, has delivered on 3.2.2021 its Judgment on the preliminary objections raised by the United States of America in the case concerning Alleged Violations of the 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America). In its Judgment, which is final, without appeal and binding on the Parties, the Court   found that it has jurisdiction, on the basis of Article XXI, paragraph 2, of the Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights of 1955, to entertain the Application filed by the Islamic Republic of Iran on 16 July 2018, and that the said Application is admissible. The Court therefore rejected the preliminary objections to its jurisdiction raised by the United States of America. On 16 July 2018, the Islamic Republic of Iran filed an Application instituting proceedings against the United States of America with regard to a dispute concerning alleged violations of the Treaty of Ami

The Department of Criminology, Criminal Law and Social Law of Ghent University (Belgium) offers a PhD student position. The PhD student will work on a bilateral (Flanders-Quebec) FWO funded project on the ethical, legal and social aspects of using smartphone crowd-sourced data for biomedical research purposes. Smartphone applications for health are being increasingly used as a platform for collecting and sharing large volumes of crowdsourced personal health data for biomedical research and algorithm training. Ghent University is one of the top 100 universities in the Dutch language area, with more than 44,000 students and 15,000 staff members. Last application date Feb 19, 2021 00:00 Department RE23 - Department of Criminology, Criminal Law and Social Law Contract Limited duration Degree Master in Law or related fields Occupancy rate 100% Vacancy type Research staff Μore information and application here (source: academicpositions.com /photo: law.ughent.be)

The Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior breached the terms of its grant agreement by using EU money to buy SUVs from older stocks instead of new all-terrain police cars, according to an investigation closed recently by OLAF, the European Anti-Fraud Office. OLAF has recommended the recovery of nearly €6 million in European funds and that criminal proceedings could be considered against officials of the Ministry.  OLAF’s investigation began in July 2018 following allegations of fraud and the misappropriation of EU funds from the EU Internal Security Fund grant agreement managed by the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior. The agreement concerned the delivery of 350 all-terrain vehicles for use by the police.  During the course of its investigation, OLAF collected and analysed all the relevant documentation from the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior and interviewed all the key participants in the preparation and implementation of the tender. All parties concerned in the investigation cooperated

The European Investment Bank is seeking to recruit for its Directorate, Legal Directorate (JU) - Legal Department - Operations 2 (JU/OPS 2) -Outside Europe B Division (OEU-B) - at its headquarters in Luxembourg, a (Associate) Banking and Finance Lawyer. This is a full-time, temporary position, at grade 4/5.   The term of this contract will be 2 years; as this is a temporary replacement assignment, no extension or conversion of the contract is foreseen. Panel interviews are anticipated for beginning of April 2021. The Outside Europe B Division (OEU-B) is currently dealing with the legal documentation and legal issues for projects in the following countries: Turkey, Central Asia, Balkans and Eastern Neighbours. The (Associate) Banking and Finance Lawyer, internally referred to as (Associate) Officer Legal Services, will assist the Head of Division, together with other legal advisers, in providing legal support to the operational directorates, carrying out work related to all tasks wi

Increased polarisation and challenges to Europe’s fundamental principles, together with the global COVID-19 pandemic, are likely to create the most difficult period we have seen in many years, according to the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Speaking at the court’s annual press conference in Strasbourg, ECHR President Robert Spano said that democracy, the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law are increasingly being called into question at both the European and global levels. He added that the on-going pandemic has already raised a number of important human rights issues, including the proportionality of measures taken by Council of Europe member states, the legal basis of those measures and the use of domestic procedures to sanction actions or inaction. President Spano underlined that the ECHR has been able to continue its work despite the pandemic, deciding on over 39,190 applications in 2020 and holding online public hearings for the first time.

The Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance of the University of Luxembourg is recruiting a Doctoral researcher (PhD student) in Law. A specialisation is foreseen in (European) Criminal Law and Criminal procedure. The doctoral researcher will be working within the Department of Law. The doctoral researcher is expected to contribute to research projects in the area of Criminal Law. Particular interest in Europeanization of Criminal Law with an interdisciplinary context would be an asset. The candidate’s main task will be to prepare a doctoral thesis in the field of European Criminal Law, under the supervision of Professor Stefan Braum. The thesis work will be undertaken at the University of Luxembourg but can also be part of a jointly-supervised with another university. Τ he doctoral researcher will contribute to the teaching of classes ranging from one to three hours per week, of small group teachings and tutorials. The candidate must have: Master’s degree in Law The  linguistic sk

In response to the unprecedented situation created by COVID-19, many of the EU institutions, agencies and bodies were required to adopt targeted measures and/or to adapt their working processes to deal with the challenges of the emergency. In April 2020, the Ombudsman began examining the work of the EU administration in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. As a first step, at that stage, she  drew the attention of the European Commission and Council  to the fact that their obligations concerning transparency were not diminished in the crisis response. In July 2020, the Ombudsman launched a series of inquiries and initiatives, looking at specific aspects of the work of different EU institutions, agencies and bodies. The Ombudsman’s  inquiry  into the work carried out by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in gathering and assessing data linked to the COVID-19 crisis is at an advanced stage. The Ombudsman’s inquiry team has inspected various ECDC files, carri