European Politeia Issue 2019

European Politeia Issue 2019

Language

English

French

2019/

Type

Print edition

75.00 €

EUROPEAN POLITEIA 2019

The Theoria section of the 2019 issue of the European Politeia starts with an article by George Karavokyris, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Charalampos Kouroundis, PhD, Post-doctoral Researcher, Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Styliani Christoforidou, PhD, Law School of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Lina Papadopoulou, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which aims to highlight, in the specific context of a modern Greece still suffering the effects of a prolonged financial crisis, the tension between democracy and representation. The theory of representation is the conceptual prism through which the study analyzes the institutional impact of the financial crisis on the functioning of democracy. Next, Vassilios Tselios, Expert Minister Counselor, National Coordinator of Greece for the EUSAIR, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, writes on the Macro-regional Strategies, which, created by the European Council, consist in innovative schemes of cooperation among EU Member States and third countries, aiming at regional integration and promotion of cohesion, not only territorial. In order to further develop and produce to their full potential, Macro-regional Strategies should take benefit of all the policies and relevant opportunities offered in the wider EU framework.

In the Praxis section of this issue a series of judgments is presented and commented on by distinguished members of the judiciary. Aikaterini Souki, Assistant Judge at the Greek Council of State, presents her analysis on the Legality and Constitutionality of Anti-smoking Measures according to the Jurisprudence of the Greek Council of State through Council of State Judgements 551/2019 and 4171-2/2012. On a different topic, next Aikaterini Souki writes on two contradicting decisions of the First and Fifth Section of the Council of State, issued in balancing the need for environmental protection and the principle of equality in burden sharing. The Plenary Session of the Court resolved the conflict adopting the interpretation given by the First Section. In his article, Nikolaos K. Markopoulos, Maître des Requêtes at the Greek Council of State, aims to highlight the way through which the weaving of a value and two legal concepts in the loom of Articles 2 and 19 of the TEU by the CJEU has produced a new institutional obligation of Member States and a new legal formula, in order to ensure the integrity and the application of the rule of law within the Union, alongside other rather political processes such as Article 7 TEU. These include the value of the rule of law, referred to in Article 2 TEU, and the concepts of a) effective judicial protection under Article 19 TEU and enshrined in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and b) judicial independence, as a more specific aspect of the latter, enshrined also in Article 47 of the Charter. Dimitrios Pyrgakis, Associate Judge at the Greek Council of State, presents Judgments by which the Plenary Session of the Greek Council of State decided that the new ministerial decrees on religious education in primary, middle and high school were unconstitutional given that they distorted the purpose of religious teaching, which is, according to the Constitution, to develop pupils' Orthodox Christian conscience.

In the Theasis section, Constantinos Kombos, Associate Professor of Public and EU Law at the Law Department of the University of Cyprus, presents the complex background of the contested understanding of the rule of law that proved to be non-universal, especially when Member States claim sovereign authority for reorganizing their judicial architecture, against which the CJEU’s jurisprudence has been able through the preliminary reference procedure and also through the direct actions for infringements, to attribute a legal effect that is justiciable.