Big day for those following the legal aspects of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and the eventual accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Today, the Court of Justice of the European Union will sit as two Grand Chambers.
This morning’s oral hearing:
– Joined Cases C-29/22 P and C-44/22 P, KS and KD v Council and Others, and Commission v KS and Others.
The question: can the EU be held non-contractually liable for its missions in third states under the CFSP and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)?
It is unclear whether the CJEU even has the necessary jurisdiction to answer such a question. In a previous case (Case C-134/19, Bank Regan Kargaran), the Court ruled it did have jurisdiction to establish non-contractual liability of the EU as regards restrictive measures, so it is conceivable that the CJEU will again confirm its jurisdiction.
This afternoon’s oral hearing:
– Case C-351/22, Neves 77 Solutions.
The question:
Can the CJEU assist a national court through the reference for a preliminary ruling procedure (Article 267 TFEU) to interpret a CFSP Decision on restrictive measures (sanctions) and the conformity of national measures with such, when the EU Treaties, again, appear to exclude the CJEU from doing so.
The CJEU confirmed in a previous case (Case C-72/15, Rosneft) that it has the jurisdiction to confirm the validity of sanctions through Article 267 TFEU, so again, the extension of the jurisdiction should be a logical step.
Both cases, more broadly:
The significance of these cases lays elsewhere, however, namely whether the EU can accede to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), given the CJEU in Opinion 2/13 explicitly named the legal arrangements of the CFSP, and the jurisdiction of the CJEU as regards it, as per the EU Treaties, was being a hinderance to accession, as per the initial Draft Accession Agreement.
Given that the legal arrangements concerning jurisdiction of the CJEU are being slowly filled out, the precise wording of the judgments will be ones to watch.