European Union Rights Research Articles

An analysis of national media coverage of a parental leave reform investigating sentiment, semantics and contributors.

While paid leave for fathers after the birth of a child has become increasingly available, mothers still take most of the parental leave. A recent European Union (EU) reform addresses the unequal sharing of leave between parents via earmarking of paid, non-shareable leave to each parent. Given that the reform's success will depend on uptake by families, we analysed Danishnational media coverage to understand how journalists were writing about the reform. We assessed the sentiment and semantics of leave reform coverage compared to general news from the same period, also considering the inferred journalist gender and newspaper political orientation. Parental leave reform articles were slightly more emotional than general news, independent of who authored the article, or the newspaperwhere it was published. We found a robust difference in the semantics of how female journalists wrote about the reform, relative to male journalists, and that female journalists contributed to media coverage at a higher-than-expected rate. The tendency for media coverage to be written with a non-neutral sentiment can be understood in terms of the enduring political tensions over gender equality, the role of the EU and families' rights to self-organization. That female journalists over-contributed to media coverage is interesting in understanding topic assignments or interest in parental leave.

Trade with the EU, Variable Geometry and Human Rights in the EAC

The Economic Partnership Agreement between the East African Community (EAC) and the European Union (EU) is of particular importance for the Kenyan floriculture sector. While the other EAC Partner States remain reluctant to ratify this agreement, they allowed the Republic of Kenya to start its implementation under the principle of variable geometry in June 2021. Kenya and the EU then started a strategic dialogue in which they pledged to strengthen their cooperation on human rights issues. This article identifies two priorities for floriculture workers: Kenya’s ratification of the core labour rights Convention No. 87 on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise and the broadening of an enabling space for an active, organised and transparent civil society.

Fundamental Rights as Constraints to and Triggers for Differentiated Integration

AbstractWhen looking for possible constraints on Differentiated Integration, the fundamental values of the European Union (EU) seem an obvious starting point. Both the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the values articulated in Art. 2 TEU are cross‐cutting across EU states. However, while fundamental values have acted as centralising devices in other federal settings, in an EU context marked by extensive value disagreement, they may also act as pathways for differentiation. Insofar as national constitutional orders disagree on the scope of EU rights, attempts to ground EU law in fundamental values trigger inevitable interpretive conflicts across states. This paper will use the examples of asylum and the European Arrest Warrant to demonstrate this argument: while EU law may use fundamental values as a reason to harmonise EU law across states, such values may also be invoked to question the principle of mutual trust underlying the EU legal order, thereby causing rather than limiting differentiation.

The Strange Case of Northern Ireland's Disappearing Rights in the EU-UK Withdrawal Negotiations

The draft European Union (EU)-United Kingdom (UK) Withdrawal Agreement did not suddenly coalesce in November 2018. It was the product of a process involving multiple iterations, some of them public, including the Joint Report of December 2017, the EU Commission’s draft text of March 2018, and the UK negotiating position of June 2018. From the outset of this process, securing the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and an open border in Ireland were accepted by all negotiating parties as priorities for the first phase of Brexit negotiations. What rapidly became evident, however, was that there was no shared understanding of what those goals required. Through these snapshots of the negotiations the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement’s requirements were framed and reframed. As a result, understandings of concepts of non-diminution and non-retrogression shifted across these documents. So too did the categories of rights-holder within Northern Ireland, and the degree to which EU rights will still be able to be relied upon in what, following the completion of the withdrawal process under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, is set to become territory external to the EU. This contribution examines how the potential scope of EU rights protections operating in Northern Ireland narrowed during the negotiations towards the draft Withdrawal Agreement and reflects upon whether this narrowing is better explained by the UK’s robust negotiating position, or by the extent to which the EU institutions became concerned with the implications of the potential reach of the special status on offer for Northern Ireland for the coherence of EU law.

The EU, China, trade dependence and human rights

This article looks at the linkages between export to the European Union (EU), export to china and human rights policies. The article argues that countries that export to the EU at high rates are more likely to converge towards its policies than countries that don’t export to the EU. The article also argues that the rise of China as a significant economic actor does not undermine this process. The article tests these arguments by analysing the links between human rights protection in the EU and in China, and export to the EU and to China, on the one hand, and human rights protection in all the countries for which there are data, on the other. The results indicate that countries’ human rights policies are positively associated with the EU’s human rights policies and this association is conditioned by countries’ levels of export to the EU. The results further indicate that export to China does not undermine this pattern. The article draws conceptual and policy implications.

Auditing the Performing Rights Society - investigating a new European Union Collective Management Organization member audit method

The European Union Rights Management Directive 2014/26/EU, provides regulatory oversight of European Union (EU) Collective Management Organizations (CMOs). However, the Directive has no provision indicating how members of EU CMOs may conduct non-financial audits of their CMO income and reporting. This paper addresses the problem of a lack of an audit method through a case study of the five writer members of the music group Duran Duran, who have been members of the UK's CMO for performing rights - the Performing Rights Society (PRS) for over 35 years. The paper argues a new audit CMO member method that can address the lacunae regarding the absence of CMO member right to audit a CMO and an applicable CMO audit method.

Auditing the Performing Rights Society - investigating a new European Union Collective Management Organization member audit method

The European Union Rights Management Directive 2014/26/EU, provides regulatory oversight of European Union (EU) Collective Management Organizations (CMOs). However, the Directive has no provision indicating how members of EU CMOs may conduct non-financial audits of their CMO income and reporting. This paper addresses the problem of a lack of an audit method through a case study of the five writer members of the music group Duran Duran, who have been members of the UK's CMO for performing rights - the Performing Rights Society (PRS) for over 35 years. The paper argues a new audit CMO member method that can address the lacunae regarding the absence of CMO member right to audit a CMO and an applicable CMO audit method.

Does Belgian Law Enhance Paternal Involvement in Care Work?

This publication is supported by the European Union Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020). This programme is implemented by the European Commission and shall contribute to the further development of an area where equality and the rights of persons, as enshrined in the Treaty, the Charter and international human rights conventions, are promoted and protected. For more information see: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants1/programmes-2014- 2020/rec/index_en.htm

The Transposition and Efficacy of EU Rights: Indirect Effect and a Coming-of-Age of State Liability?

Throughout the duration of the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU), non-implementation and incorrect transposition of Directives has been commonplace. Coupled with the Court of Justice of the European Union’s refusal to extend the direct effect of Directives to horizontal relationships, and historic difficulties in holding States liable in damages, it has often fallen to the national courts to give effect to EU laws through purposive statutory interpretation. Recent cases involving the collective redundancy of workers in the UK, and the High Court’s assessment of State Liability in the insurance sector (approved by the Court of Appeal), raise questions as to the efficacy of the current system of enforcement of EU law domestically. Despite the problems of access to EU rights experienced by workers in the UK, there appears to be hope that the judiciary is becoming more attuned to the relationship between EU and domestic laws, and are willing to take control of granting access to remedies without necessarily waiting for EU institutions to provide express permission or instruction. 2015 has thus far been a particularly important year in this regard. However, a systematic review of the UK’s transposition of EU law and the impact on individuals of the current suite of enforcement mechanisms is required if private enforcement of EU law is to provide the protection workers need and to which they are entitled.

One for All and All for One? The Collective Enforcement of EU Law

The failure of individual and institutional remedies to ensure the effective enforcement of European Union (EU) law has increasingly focused attention on collective routes to ensuring adherance to EU policies and rights. How comprehensive, however, should collective remedies under EU law be? This introductory article - as well as the other articles of this volume - explores the feasibility of a horizontal approach to the collective enforcement of EU law. While the hope for such an approach has been bolstered by the engagement of the EU institutions, the Commission's most recent 2013 Recommendation fails to significantly advance the development of collective remedies at EU level. The article will conclude by exploring some further, non-legislative, alternatives to furthering the collective enforcement of EU law.

Application of the Life-Cycle Assessment Method for Pollution Prevention in Klaipėda Sea Port, Lithuania

Dvarionienė, J.; Zobėlaitė-Noreikienė, G.; Kruopiene, J., and Stasiškienė, Z., 2013. Application of the life-cycle assessment method for pollution prevention in Klaipėda sea port, Lithuania.Lithuania is one of the countries that have ratified the Marpol 73/78 Convention, which foresees the tools of reduction and prevention of sea pollution by bilge water and other substances. The Directive of the European Parliament and Council 2000/59/EB is addressed to the reduction of waste onboard ships and its wash overboard. Analysis of the ships entering Klaipėda sea port has estimated that oil waste constitutes about 74% of the whole collected waste amount. Engine bilge water is specific and hazardous to the environment because it is a liquid compound of water and oil products capable of making steady emulsions. It also acquires specific properties during various technological processes. Equipment, technological processes, specificity of the control related to combustibility and flammability, as well as conformity to the requirements of the International and European Union Rights, technological process management, and documents are needed for the management of this specific waste. For this reason, separation of this oily water from the common oil-polluted waste and analysis of these streams of waste treatment are of great importance to enhance the effectiveness of environmental protection during the management process of this oily waste. Applying a system approach to the oily waste in the port, we set up a waste management system algorithm based on the life cycle. The system of port waste management is a set of technological processes, each of them performing a certain function and requiring stock, electric energy, fuel, transport, heat, technological equipment, etc. Having made the environmental assessment, a suggestion was made to convert the waste resulting from the engine bilge water treatment into energy and to use it in a technological process when closing (finishing) the life cycle. In this paper, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to identify and quantify the environmental impacts caused by the ship-generated waste management, focusing on oily waters of the port of Klaipėda. LCA methodology was used to evaluate the environmental performance of ship-generated waste management of Klaipėda port, according to international standards.

EU membership of the WTO: International trade disputes and judicial protection of individuals by EU Courts

AbstractThe European Union (EU) is embedded in a pluralistic legal context because of the EU and its Member States’ treaty memberships and domestic laws. Where EU conduct has implications for both the EU’s international trade relations and the legal position of individual traders, it possibly affects EU and its Member States’ obligations under the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO law) as well as the Union’s own multi-layered constitutional legal order. The present paper analyses the way in which the European Court of Justice (ECJ) accommodates WTO and EU law in the context of international trade disputes triggered by the EU. Given the ECJ’s denial of direct effect of WTO law in principle, the paper focuses on the protection of rights and remedies conferred by EU law. It assesses the implications of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) – which tolerates the acceptance of retaliatory measures constraining traders’ activities in sectors different from those subject to the original trade dispute (Bananas and Hormones cases) – for the protection of ‘retaliation victims’. The paper concludes that governmental discretion conferred by WTO law has not affected the applicability of EU constitutional law but possibly shapes the actual scope of EU rights and remedies where such discretion is exercised in the EU’s general interest.

From ‘Administrative Cooperation’ in the Application of European Union Law to ‘Administrative Cooperation’ in the Protection of European Rights and Liberties

European law scholars acknowledge that cooperation amongst public administrations in Europe has 'become the backbone of the EU's unique system of government and governance'. All in all, it has been pointed out that the principle of (administrative) cooperation is crucial for the correct application of European Union (EU) law. However, cooperation is also the very principle around that revolve several initiatives, launched to provide an alternative to the courts in protecting individuals against alleged misapplications of European law by national authorities. Hence, cooperation networks of national authorities (and European institutions) have been set up to provide a response to the needs of the European citizen who has to deal with a new 'European administration' and also to make administrative practices better and more consistent throughout Europe. This article is divided into two main sections. The first section deals with the principle of administrative cooperation in the application of EU law and with the legal problems (especially in terms of judicial review) that stem from 'cross-border' composite decision-making procedures. The second section focuses on the cooperation networks that during the last decade have been developed to resolve problems arising when EU rights are not respected by national public authorities: namely the SOLVIT network, the Public Procurement Network and the Network of Ombudsmen. Finally, a brief account is given of the Single Market Assistance Services initiative.

European Union Family Values: Ideologies of "Family" and "Motherhood" in European Union Law

This article argues that European Union law, and particularly the jurisprudence of the European Court of justice, has reproduced and thereby legitimated a traditional ideology of the “family” and “motherhood”. This ideology limits the potential of the European Union's sex equality laws to bring about real change in the lives of women and men, as well as restricting the scope and entitlement of European Union rights, excluding those who fall outside this normative vision of “family.” Furthermore, as the European Union contemplates ever more competence in the family policy and family law fields, it is of considerable concern that it may be this ideology of “family” that provides the normative foundation for further developments in this area.

Ownership of cultural expression: Speech & culture in the new intellectual property rights regime of the European Union

This article offers a socio-legal argument that the emerging intellectual property rights regime of the European Union (EU) sweeps away constraints on proprietary accumulation of expression by altering notions of property rights over content in a way that would inhibit rather than stimulate the diversity of ideas, expressive forms, opinion, and representations of social reality in the Information Society. In order to understand the socio-legal significance of intellectual property rights in shaping and naturalizing the information age, the article explores unexamined premises in diverse political-legal models governing the production and diffusion of expression. The emerging EU and global intellectual property rights (IPR) regime is examined for the form in which it deals with a set of serious complexities in regulating content ownership rights in the construction of the information society, and for its approach to balancing the economic rights of the content industry as against the human rights of creative labor and the information rights of the public. This is illustrated in the transformation of the political and social aims of IPR at the global level and in EU policy and law. The article concludes by addressing the ascent of contractual law as an ordering principle regulating ownership rights over content in the public sphere of the information society.