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Ombudsman inquiry on Commission President’s text messages is a wake-up call for EU

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The European Ombudsman inquiry into the Commission’s handling of a request for text messages between its President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company is a wake-up call for all EU institutions about ensuring accountability in an era of instant messaging. One year after the initial request by a journalist, the Commission has still not clarified whether messages reported to concern major vaccine procurement deals exist and whether the public is entitled to see them. The Ombudsman had asked the Commission, in a finding of maladministration in January, to conduct a more thorough search for the text messages. The Commission’s recent response failed to say whether it had looked directly and correctly for the text messages and if not, why not. While the response recognised that work-related text messages can be EU documents, it reiterated that the Commission’s internal policy is, in effect, not to register text messages. The Ombudsman has closed  the inquiry  and upheld...
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Legal Professional Privilege in the Digital Age: Recent case law of the ECtHR and the core principles that should govern searches

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By Giorgos Kazoleas, Lawyer The protection of legal professional privilege is a fundamental pillar of the right to respect for private life and correspondence (Article 8 of the ECHR), as well as of the right to a fair trial (Article 6 of the ECHR). In recent years, as the use of digital means in the practice of law has become firmly established, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has delivered important judgments focusing mainly on the digital age, searches of law offices and the surveillance of communications between lawyer and client. Set out below is a selection of ECtHR case law on such matters: Seizure and retention of vast amounts of lawyers' digital data In Kırdök and Others v. Turkey (3 December 2019), the national authorities seized all the hard drives and digital files of a law office in the course of an investigation, without distinguishing between the documents relating to the case and the confidential files of other clients. The Court found a violat...
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Questioning Suspects Without a Lawyer: Hungary and Czech Republic Infringed EU Law (CJEU)

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Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations: By allowing, as a general rule, suspects or persons under reasonable suspicion of having committed a criminal offence to be questioned without a lawyer if that lawyer does not attend within a certain period, Hungary and the Czech Republic have infringed EU law (Judgments of the CJEU in Cases C-660/24 | Commission v Hungary and C-681/24 | Commission v Czech Republic). The national legislation of those two Member States cannot be justified by the grounds exhaustively laid down in EU law that permit a temporary derogation from the right of access to a lawyer The directive on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings [1] provides that suspects and accused persons are to have the right of access to a lawyer in such time and in such a manner so as to allow the persons concerned to exercise their rights of defence practically and effectively. In the sets of proceedings for failure to fulfil obligations brought against Hungary and ...
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Balancing Crime Control and Ne Bis In Idem: ECtHR Finds No Violation in Successive Proceedings

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The case concerned the right not to be tried or punished twice – a right protected by Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 and known as the “ne bis in idem” principle. In its Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Jesus Pinhal v. Portugal (applications nos. 48047/15 and 2276/20) the European Court of Human Rights held, by fifteen votes to two, that there had been no violation of Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 (right not to be tried or punished twice) to the European Convention on Human Rights. The applicant had been a member and Vice-Chairman of the Banco Comercial Português bank (“the BCP”). Following a complaint, the Lisbon public prosecutor’s office, the Securities Market Commission (CMVM) and the Portuguese central bank (BdP) initiated proceedings against him for various criminal and administrative offences. Before the Court, the applicant argued that he had been tried three times for the same acts. The Court used this occasion to clarify the criteria to be applied in striking a fair bala...
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Τhe appeal against a decision rejecting asylum and the principle of effectiveness

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Written by Giorgos Kazoleas, Lawyer in Cyprus The positive impact of the application of the principle of effectiveness reflects a significant recent ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The decision concerns immigration law and in particular the right of the asylum seeker to appeal against the decision rejecting his application. The ECJ considers that the applicant may rely on circumstances subsequent to the rejection in his appeal and that the national court should take them into account. According to the Judgment [1]  , it is for each Member State to lay down procedural rules for legal actions that would safeguard that effective judicial protection. The Court recalls that the Dublin III Regulation 4 provides that a person who is the subject of a transfer decision is to have the right to an effective remedy against that decision and that that remedy must cover, inter alia, the examination of the application of that regulation. According to article 27 of the Regul...
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Following the tragic death of lawyer Ebru Timtik, the CCBE calls on the EU and Turkish authorities to take urgent measures to prevent the death of lawyer Aytaç Ünsal

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The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) is deeply shocked by the death of Turkish lawyer Ebru Timtik on 27 August after a 238 days hunger strike. Lawyers Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal, respectively sentenced to 13 and 6 months and 11 years and 6 months in prison, decided to go on an unlimited hunger strike to denounce their unfair trial as well as the unfair trial of several dozens of Turkish lawyers. ( Read more here ) Since 2017, several Turkish lawyers belonging to the Progressive Lawyers Association and the People's Law Office, among which Ebru Timtik and Aytaç Ünsal, have been victims of judicial harassment. These lawyers who have fought for Justice and the Rule of Law have defended, among others, persons considered to be opponents of the Turkish government, families of miners massacred in Soma and Ermenek, populations expelled from their homes as victims of urban transformation, families of citizens killed under torture in police stations and prisons as well as...
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Money laundering scandals of high profile European banks during the first half of 2020

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By Christina Poursanidou, Lawyer /  Legal and Compliance Officer  During 2019, the total number of fines imposed globally for violation of money laundering regulations was estimated to €370 million. Strangely enough, such fines did not worry bank CEOs and boards, which instead of improving their anti-money laundering (AML) procedures, keep on operating with insufficient due diligence standards, improper management of AML measures and   poor transaction monitoring. The result?   €600 million in AML monetary penalties within the first six months of 2020. Within the context of the European Union, during 2020 National Financial Supervisors have imposed heavy fines to a number of credit institutions, such as Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB , known as SEB   (€125 million), Deutsche Bank (€13.5 million), Commerzbank (€41 million) and Swedbank (€320 Million). These money laundering cases involving high-profile EU financial institutions have highlighted that the E...
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