CJEU, employment law

New judgment: parental leave doesn't count towards accruing annual holiday rights

(Nb *maternity* leave and sick leave do count) CJEU, monetary union

New AG opinion: second challenge to ECB bond purchases policy coming from the German Constitutional court should be rejected

As I have mentioned before, recently the EU Council approved the UK negotiating on Brexit issues with EFTA States. The details of this negotiation have now been released to the public. Here they are. A few comments. 1/x 2/ The UK/EFTA negotiations are taking place on the assumption that the withdrawal agreement is agreed and comes into force, and seek to match up the UK's relations with EFTA States with UK/EU relations during the transition period set out in the withdrawal agreement.

"I've also been clear"
Drink! #DowningStreet The "Tusk didn't explain his position" line ignores the detailed explanation of the position which Barnier recently gave to the Commons. #DowningStreet

CJEU, Brexit and criminal law
European Arrest Warrants issued by the UK must still be executed before Brexit Day CJEU, equality law
New judgment clarifies the position of new mothers working night shifts, ie who has the burden of proof to show a health and safety problem

1/ So, I have had a look at the new government notice on travel to the EU after no deal Brexit. With great respect, it's shoddy work. gov.uk/government/pub… 2/ There's lots of talk about passport validity dates, which is an important technical detail. But the central point that UK citizens can't just stay in the EU indefinitely any more is only briefly mentioned.

1/ CJEU today - sanctions
EU General Court upholds EU sanctions against Russian banks and oil companies re Crimea: curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/do…
This includes Sberbank, which Jacob Rees-Mogg's outfit has invested in: theguardian.com/politics/2018/… 2/ CJEU, consumer law and telecoms
New judgment: SIM card pre-loaded with fee-paying links without sufficient info to consumers breaches EU consumer law: curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/do…
Judgment also addresses overlaps between general consumer law & telecoms lex specialis

1/ Some background on Juncker's #SOTEU speech - focussing on the immigration law aspects

Here's the list of proposals, etc due to be made in the speech

https://twitter.com/StevePeers/status/1039454137346387969?s=19

2/ There's a plan for soft law on legal migration and migration relations with Africa, but the binding legislation to be proposed concerns the EU asylum agency, the border control agency Frontex, and the law on control of irregular migrants (the Return Directive).

CJEU, religious discrimination in employment

New judgment: firing manager in Catholic hospital for getting a civil divorce was unjustified

Also EU Charter of Rights has horizontal direct effect in such cases The full text of today's CJEU judgment on religious discrimination in employment - firing a Catholic hospital manager due to a civil divorce - is now online in English: curia.europa.eu/juris/document…

1/ The CJEU is back from holiday - starting with a big victory for @ClientEarth re access to environmental information: curia.europa.eu/juris/document…
General point: impact assessments drawn up before legislative proposals are subject to liberal access to documents rules #FOIA 2/ CJEU, EU external relations law
New judgment: implementing the EU's partnership treaty with Kazakhstan shouldn't have been subject to unanimous voting, since the foreign policy elements were incidental: curia.europa.eu/juris/document…

UK government "no deal" notices just published: gov.uk/government/pub… Full text of Raab's speech today: gov.uk/government/new…

1/ A short thread on proposals to change the rules on divvying up jurisdiction between the CJEU and its General Court. (The latter is being enlarged to two judges/Member State).

In March, the CJEU proposed to divvy up jurisdiction differently because of the extra GC judges. 2/ The main proposed change was to give the GC powers to decide on most infringement actions (where the Commission sues Member States for failure to implement EU law). Also the CJEU would have the power to filter appeals from the GC.

Here's the proposal: data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/S…

Here's the full text of the new Telegraph article on the government's position on the rights of @The3Million in the event of no deal Brexit. A few thoughts. 1/

https://twitter.com/tris_siam/status/1031299324771278848

2/ First of all, it's obviously contradictory to say a) "we're taking the moral high ground" and "we are doing this to avoid labour shortages".

Anyway, the time to take the moral high ground was *summer 2016*, removing any anxiety for @The3Million from the outset.

1/ This is a great thread on the legal effect of WTO law. The broader relevance is that WTO law is being pushed by no deal Brexit fans as a magic solution to any problems that might arise. Here's some thoughts on the overall context of this dishonest claim.

https://twitter.com/hhesterm/status/1026549464838762496

2 The starting point of Brexiters was that the EU would give the UK anything it wanted in a trade deal.

Now the argument has morphed: no deal is necessary because the UK can get much of what it wants even *without* a trade deal.

The magic ingredient? International law.

OMG. The Brexiters are going full Trump here. This is a very weak legal argument. 1/

https://twitter.com/MsHelicat/status/1026208913648242688

2/ First of all, Article 50 is lex specialis. It clearly contemplates the prospect that the EU doesn't agree a withdrawal agreement with a withdrawing Member State. So how could the EU be "breaking its own law" in this scenario?

There have been highly detailed rational counter-arguments which were not hysterical or abusive. Will you please stop lying?

https://twitter.com/SirSocks/status/1026145670112141312

So here are the responses to the article. Not a single word of this thread is "hysterical" or "abusive".

https://twitter.com/CoppetainPU/status/1025903062618189826?s=19

So in the last couple of days
1 A Times columnist praises authoritarians
2 An MEP wants the law of treason to apply to at least some Remainers
3 Another MEP writes sabre rattling stuff in the Sun
Some thoughts... 2 Initially this can be traced back to the jingoistic variety of Brexit arguments, which gained prominence during the referendum campaign, alongside (it should be recalled) less febrile arguments.

Big batch of "end of term" CJEU judgments and opinions today.

First up, asylum law: new judgment clarifies when Palestinian refugees are covered by the special rules on getting protection from the UN instead. CJEU, criminal law and human rights I
Full text of today's judgment on whether Polish European Arrest Warrants can be executed in light of rule of law concerns: curia.europa.eu/juris/document…

1/ Here's the text of the UK government White Paper on the planned bill to implement the withdrawal agreement. Some first thoughts. gov.uk/government/pub… 2 The "Irish citizens will be fine" point is legally questionable, as @BernardRyan1 has often explained. If the Bill covers them, however, this matters less.

CJEU, EU citizenship
New AG opinion: loss of Dutch nationality (therefore EU citizenship) due to dual nationality and residing abroad ok for adults, but not children
(Nb Brexit raises different issues in my view) CJEU, free movement of people
New judgment: UK must facilitate entry of non-EU extended family members of returning UK citizens - note this is not a *right* of entry

1/ The @LordsEUCom report on a future security treaty between the UK and EU has just been published. Press release and full text here: parliament.uk/business/commi…
This thread will summarise the report's recommendations. (I was the special adviser to the enquiry). 2 The committee agrees with the EU and UK that a strong security relationship should be maintained after Brexit, but is critical of both sides' approach to the negotiations on this issue so far.

1/ Some thoughts on the objections to the Chequers plan by Brexiters. Much of the "We didn't vote for that" argument is based on sovereignty. But the Leave campaign also made economic claims. Let's unpack that. 2 There were positive economic claims ("sunlit uplands") and negative ones ("chained to a corpse"). The £350 million fib assumed no economic loss, only benefit. "Project Fear" was deployed to dismiss every Remain argument about economic risk.