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An adviser to the EU’s top court said it should overturn a ruling that found Venezuela lacked standing to bring a complaint over sanctions imposed by the union.
A biker wearing a protective face mask rides past a mural depicting the eyes of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, last summer. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
LUXEMBOURG (CN) Venezuela can contest economic sanctions before the European Union’s highest court, a magistrate for the court said Wednesday.
In a nonbinding opinion for the European Court of Justice, Advocate General Gerard Hogan wrote that the European General Court, the EU’s lower court, erred when it rejected a complaint from the South American country over sanctions issued in 2017.
December 20, 2020 05:56:45 pm
Advocate General Gerard Hogan of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) concluded in an opinion delivered Thursday that Malta’s judicial appointment process does not contravene EU law.
The preliminary ruling was part of ongoing proceedings before the Maltese courts, brought by pro-democracy and human rights group Repubblika. The group alleged that Malta’s current judicial appointment process, governed by Article 96 of its constitution, grants the prime minister “arbitrary discretion” and threatens judicial independence. The case was referred to the ECJ on the question of whether this process is consistent with Article 19(1) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), read in light of Article 47 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
People take part in a street demonstration to show solidarity with Polish judges facing increased political pressure from the country’s right-wing government in Warsaw on Dec. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
(CN) European magistrates on Thursday waded into contentious battles over judicial independence in Poland and Malta and legal challenges to the way judges are appointed in those countries, where critics say the rule of law has been eroded.
In the case of Poland, Advocate General Evgeni Tanchev, an adviser for the European Court of Justice, said European courts have a right to get involved in a dispute over judicial appointments to the Polish Supreme Court. His findings came in the case involving five Polish judges who say they were unlawfully denied a chance to challenge a move to not appoint them to the high court.