18 August 2022
Extradition to Russia from an EU Member State
On 8 August 2022, a Bulgarian Regional Court, acting as a first instance, allowed the extradition of Alexey Alchin, a Russian national, to Russia upon the request of the Russian Prosecutor’s Office. This controversial decision sparked much debate among Bulgarian civil society because Alchin became known for burning his Russian passport at a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and for maintaining anti-war stances. In the eyes of Bulgarian civil society, the request for his extradition is politically motivated. Continue reading >>
0 
16 February 2022
Mutual (Dis)trust
Last week, the General Court of the European Union, in its judgment T-791/19 Sped-Pro, recognized for the first time the impact that systematic rule of law deficiencies have on national competition authorities. The judgement is seminal, in that it openly questions the ability of national authorities impacted by rule of law backsliding to effectively enforce EU law. The judgement also goes to the heart of explaining the pivotal constitutional role played by competition law within the EU legal order. Continue reading >>
0
28 April 2021
How the EU is Becoming a Rule-of-Law-less Union of States
The most recent attempt by Poland's executive to undermine the very foundations of the Union legal order speaks volumes about how far the politics of resentment have come since 2015. With the Constitutional Tribunal about to hand the government its desired excuse to ignore interim measures of the Court of Justice of the European Union, a point of no return might have been reached. This new phase sees the dismantling of the rule of law on the domestic front being reinforced, aided and abetted now by the legitimizing inaction and/or spineless bargaining at … the supranational level. The EU through its institutions is playing the game according to the rules dictated by the smart autocrats. Continue reading >>02 October 2020