The Constitutional Court’s delegation visits the Court of Justice of the European Union in the framework of a bilateral visit
On 13 and 14 February, Justices of the Constitutional Court and representatives of its administration participated in several working meetings in Luxemburg with the management of the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as examined specific issues related to ensuring the functioning of the Court and the General Court.
Judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union was further on the agenda. At this meeting, Irēna Kucina, Vice-President of the Constitutional Court, gave a lecture on the supremacy of the legal acts of the European Union and protection of national identity. Providing insight into the recently delivered judgment in the case on provisions of the Law on Higher Education Institutions, she drew attention to the significance of an effective dialogue between a constitutional court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has been proven, in particular, by the cooperation between the courts in the preliminary ruling procedure in the said case.
The third working meeting was a discussion between the Constitutional Court’s Justices and the Vice-President of the General Court Savvas Papasavvas and the General Court’s Judges Inga Reine and Pēteris Zilgalvis. The participants discussed redistribution of competence between the Court and the General Court, recent case law in the areas of energy, environment protection, and state aid, as well as issues related to digitalisation.
In the continuation of the agenda, the Constitutional Court’s delegation was informed about the work of the Research and Documentation Directorate of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the research methods used.
On 14 February, representatives of the Constitutional Court had the possibility to observe the full Court’s hearing in case C-560/20 Landeshauptmann von Wien. The issue that was examined in the case was whether the parents (third country nationals) of a refugee, who as an unaccompanied minor had submitted an asylum application and who had been granted asylum as a minor, may continue claiming the right to family reunion if this refugee after having received asylum but at the time while the procedure for granting residence permit to his parents was ongoing, had come of age.
Upon the request made by the Constitutional Court’s delegation, e‑Curia, the application of the Court of Justice of the European Union, was presented to it, providing experience related to the Constitutional Court joining the united architecture of e-case. Likewise, the Head of the Latvian Language Division of the Translation Services gave a presentation on multilingualism at the Court of Justice of the European Union, after which the delegation visited the Court’s library and received information about extensive possibilities for using its collection.