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In an unusual public statement he shared with Politician, Marc van der Woude, President of the General Court of the European Union, the second largest court in the EU, described the decision of the German Constitutional Court last month as “direct interference in the functioning of the legal system of the European Union “. A prominent judge warned that this could lead some countries to abandon this legal system and carry out a “covert withdrawal” from the European Union.
May 5 The German Constitutional Court ruled that in 2015 the European Central Bank (ECB) bond purchase program is illegal under German law unless the ECB can provide sufficient justification within the next three months. This decision was widely interpreted as a challenge to the independence of the bloc’s supreme judiciary, the Court of Justice of the European Union, which authorized the bond purchase program.
Arguing that the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg acted in “incomprehensible ways” and “ultra vires” (beyond its jurisdiction), the German judges made a degrading assessment of their European counterparts. This was not without consequences: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was considering starting legal proceedings against Germany for misconduct.
In his ideas, Mr van der Woude described the German ruling as a threat to the “fragile and subtle” legal system of the European Union. He warned that this “would break the relationship of trust between all EU courts and undermine the rule of law on which the European Union is based.”
Van der Woude wrote that the German ruling, “although adopted in the name of the rule of law, paradoxically could reinforce an even more worrying trend: the abolition of the rule of law in certain Member States.” It was a track for Hungary and Poland.
The lawyer warned that “according to the extremes, the logic of the Constitutional Court may mean that each national court will be able to express its own vision of how EU law should be applied in European and national institutions.”
This can be abused by states where “the political majority is slowly but surely handing over the courts to the executive.”
Van der Woude argued that such a process could have serious political consequences: “If the supremacy of European Union law ceases in these countries, they will fall outside the EU legal framework and de facto depart from the common European project.”
“Finally, the question may arise as to whether this would disguise an EU withdrawal without a formal declaration under the withdrawal provisions of Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union,” added Van der Woude, referring to and recalling the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. Article 50
The judge summed up his comments by asking for a dialogue: “If the EU continues to seek sovereignty that no member of the bloc could acquire on its own, dialogue and the search for a common agreement are necessary.”
“Furthermore, the treaties provide the necessary remedies to allow any court or tribunal to refer new questions to the Court of Justice of the European Communities for a preliminary decision until a mutually acceptable solution is reached through dialogue in the general interest,” he added. lawyer.
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