Thread by @brussels_report

"An overview of national top courts challenging the supremacy of EU law"
By @pietercleppe:
brusselsreport.eu/2021/10/12/an-…
#EUlaw @EUCourtPress #Poland #CJEU #ECJ

"Over the years, there have been several other EU member states where top courts have challenged the superiority of EU law."

"In Poland, the Constitutional Court already ruled in 2005 that “while EU law may override national statutes, however, it does not override the Constitution""

"The most well-known example of a Constitutional Court challenging the supremacy of EU law is of course the German case, with the judges of the “Bundesverfassungsgericht” having raised doubts about this since the 1970s."

"In 2006, the French Constitutional Council ruled that it expressly reserves itself the right to conduct a constitutional identity review, stating that the “transposition of a Directive cannot run counter to a rule or principle inherent in the constitutional identity of France"

"In 2016, the Belgian Constitutional Court ruled that there is a limit to the primacy of EU law over the Belgian Constitution, stating that the transfer of powers to [the EU], doesn’t remove the Constitutional protection of the fundamental rights of Belgian citizens"

"In Lithuania, the Constitutional Court helds that the Constitution is above all other legal acts, including EU [all] acts. Also in Hungary, the Constitutional Court has ruled that the Hungarian Constitution still prevails over EU law."

"The Italian Constitutional Court broadly accepts the supremacy of EU law, but this comes with some reservations, as it has developed its so-called ‘counter-limits’ doctrine to limitations on national sovereignty, even if it has only once threatened to apply it."

"In 2004, the Spanish Constitutional Court issued “Declaration 1/2004”, stating that 'in the unlikely case where' EU legislation would be 'irreconcilable' with the Spanish Constitution, it could 'lead this Court to approach the problems which, in such a case, would arise'.”

"In 2012, the Czech Constitutional Court (CCC) declared in its Holubec ruling the ECJ’s “Landtova” ruling to be “ultra vires”, in the context of a judicial dispute related to pension rights. Commentators then spoke of “Nuclear War between the ECJ and Czech Constitutional Court”."

"In 2016, also the Danish Supreme Court defied the ECJ, doing the opposite of what the ECJ had held it was obliged to do, in its Ajos ruling, maintaining that a judge-made principle of EU law was not binding as it did not have its origin in a specific Treaty provision"

"The decision by the Romanian Constit. Court in 2018 to force the Romanian President to dismiss Laura Kövesi, then Chief Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate, has also raised doubts over the commitment of Romania’s top judiciary to respect superiority of EU law"

"As Belgian Law Professor Marc De Vos has argued on Brussels Report, the superiority of the EU’s top court has not been enshrined in any Treaty, but is voluntarily accepted by national top Courts, a situation which he rightly considers to be unsustainable:

https://twitter.com/brussels_report/status/1446378136023805984

"In other words, some kind of settlement, perhaps an addendum to the EU Treaty, detailing the conditions under which EU law is superior, to be ratified by all EU27 member states, to settle the matter, may not be a bad idea."

"The best guarantee to stop ECJ overreach – which is why top national courts challenge superiority of EU law – is therefore the creation of a “Subsidiarity Court”, a new intergovernmental institution superior to the EU legal order and manned by national judicial representatives"

Full article: brusselsreport.eu/2021/10/12/an-…