European Court of Justice

The European Commission will return about 280 million euros to Greece that Brussels had initially recouped from Athens arguing it had been paid as subsidies for pastures, in breach of EU law.

In a blow to Slovenia, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice, ECJ, on Friday said that it had no jurisdiction to rule on Slovenian claims that Croatia had violated European law by failing to implement a border arbitration ruling. The decision is final and there is no appeal.

The European Court of Justice should uphold its 2016 decision that personal data cannot be seized and held indiscriminately by governments even on national security grounds, the court's advocate general said in an opinion on Wednesday.

When the populist PiS first gained power in 2015, it was able to pass controversial justice reforms literally overnight. But the new balance of power means it will have to sweat a bit more to pursue a strategy widely condemned as an attack on judicial independence.

The advocate general at the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) said that "the infringements of EU law of which Slovenia accuses Croatia are ancillary to the issue of determining the boundary between those two states, which is a matter of public international law".

Critics call the reforms a step-by-step takeover of institutions vital to democracy. 

As determined as PiS is to restructure the system, others are equally bent on resisting the changes. From street protests to legal challenges by judges and lawyers, the backlash has been considerable.

The Court of Justice of the European Union may impose a fine of around EUR 2.5 million on Greece for failing to transpose in its national law the EU 2016 data protection regulation within the specified period.

There is no other explanation as to why the Visegrad Four countries of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia joined with Italy to pave the way for a German federalist to become president of the European Commission despite their past calls for an end to Germany's domination. All five nations are governed by anti-liberal, populist or far-right parties.

The European Commission asked the European Union's top court on Thursday to impose fines on Greece for failing to protect its waters against pollution caused by nitrates from agriculture in compliance with an earlier court ruling.

The European Commission has warned Bulgaria that it has failed to comply with the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU on air quality, reported the Bulgarian National Radio. 

A year and a half ago the Court ruled that the country is not complying with the limit values for concentration of particulate matter in the atmosphere.