The overall European imprisonment rate – the number of persons in prison per 100,000 inhabitants – fell again slightly in 2020, consolidating a trend that started in 2013, according to the Council of Europe’s Annual Penal Statistics on Prison Populations for 2020. On 31 January 2020, there were 1,528,343 inmates in 51 prison administrations (out […]
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Progress in 2020 in the implementation of ECHR rulings despite COVID
States across Europe are continuing to make progress on implementing judgments from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the latest annual report from the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. However, further efforts are needed to tackle systemic issues highlighted by the ECHR, including ill-treatment or deaths caused […]
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EU imposes further sanctions over serious violations of human rights around the world
The Council decided to impose restrictive measures on eleven individuals and four entities responsible for serious human rights violations and abuses in various countries around the world. Together with the listing of four Russian individuals earlier this month, these 15 designations are part of the first broader package of listings under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. […]
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EUROPEAN AGENDA: Legal Affairs
The European Union and its institutions are the main arena in which they focus, shape and plan what they face and how they will address many of the new regulatory challenges facing their societies. They therefore carry out valuable legislative proposals. To this end, we point out below significant events in this agenda: [toc] 24 […]
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Commission refers the UK to the European Court of Justice over alleged unlawful aid
The European Commission has decided to refer the United Kingdom to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to fully recover illegal State aid of up to around €100 million, granted as a tax exemption for passive interest and royalties in Gibraltar, as required by a Commission decision. This case relates to […]
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A court of a Member State must declare that the Member State has not correctly transposed a EU directive
UH, an Irish citizen and a native Irish speaker from the Galway Gaeltacht (the Irish-speaking region of Co. Galway, Ireland), claimed that the information accompanying veterinary medicinal products was written exclusively in the English language. He takes the view that Directive 2001/82 1 requires that information to be in both of the official languages of […]
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JURI Committee proposes waiver of immunity for Puigdemont and other MEPs
The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee proposed on 18 February to waive the immunity of the three Catalan MEPs, Carles Puigdemont, Clara Ponsatí and Antoni Comín, who were included in the Supreme Court’s request submitted to the Parliament on 10 January last year. The report, drafted by the Bulgarian MEP Angel Dzhambazki as rapporteur, was […]
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Commission sends letter of formal notice to the United Kingdom for breach of its obligations
The European Commission has sent today a letter of formal notice to the United Kingdom for breaching the substantive provisions of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as the good faith obligation under the Withdrawal Agreement. This marks the beginning of a formal infringement process against the United Kingdom. It is the […]
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Ruling against Spanish football for alleged illegal aid scheme
A Spanish law adopted in 1990 obliged all Spanish professional sports clubs to convert into public limited sports companies, with the exception of professional sports clubs that had achieved a positive financial balance during the financial years preceding adoption of that law. Fútbol Club Barcelona, and three other professional football clubs which came within that […]
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