Germany and the EU: Safeguarding the Rule of Law in Troubled Times

This Saar Brief explores the EU’s rule of law mechanisms – Article 7 TEU, infringement proceedings, and funding conditionality. While these tools have led to major rulings and applied financial pressure, they often secure only limited compliance. The authors argue that the CJEU’s efforts rely heavily on national courts and that Germany’s legal culture and political influence are central to shaping a more cohesive enforcement regime

New ECJ Case Law concerning Women’s Right to Asylum: Case C 646/21 and Joined Cases C-608/22 and C-609/22

This Saar Blueprint offers a critical analysis of how gender-based persecution is addressed under EU asylum law, highlighting enduring normative and jurisprudential gaps. It examines two recent judgments by the European Court of Justice concerning women’s right to asylum: Case C-646/21, involving two Iraqi girls whose commitment to gender equality was recognized as a potential ground for refugee status; and Joined Cases C-608/22 and C-609/22, concerning Afghan women facing systemic discrimination under the Taliban, which the Court found sufficient for refugee qualification. These cases reflect a growing, yet still limited, gender-sensitive approach within EU asylum jurisprudence. While the rulings mark progress, the analysis reveals significant shortcomings in the Court’s reasoning and the broader legal framework. The paper argues that addressing these deficiencies requires not only more consistent judicial interpretation but also structural reforms that embed gender considerations at all levels of EU asylum law

Factual Silence as Rule of Law Evasion: Adverse Inference and the Evidentiary Collapse of EU Accountability

This Saar Brief is a contribution in the joint Online-Symposium from Jean Monnet Saar and JuWissBlog on the topic: “Protecting the Rule of Law in the European Union – Mechanisms and National Responsibility”. Moon Hwan Lee analyzes how certain EU Member States use factual silence as a method to avoid legal accountability while preserving the formal appearance of compliance. When access to judicial records and administrative data is blocked, core enforcement mechanisms of the Union lose their function. The argument introduces adverse inference as a doctrinal solution that allows institutions to treat unjustified silence as legal evidence of breach. This approach builds on existing EU principles and offers a concrete path to restore the effectiveness of rule of law protections

Corruption, sextortion, gender-based violence: Open challenges for the European Union in harmonising substantive criminal rules

The TFEU granted the European Union a propulsive function of harmonizing criminal provisions by establishing minimum standards relating to the definition of crimes and penalties concerning impactful forms of criminality. Considering this, the European Commission has proposed two directives on corruption and gender-based violence, nevertheless lacking to enucleate borderline cases such as sextortion , namely that form of corruption in which sex, rather than money, is the currency of the bribe. Sextortion has been recorded in critical sectors such as education, healthcare, and law enforcement, but there are no specific laws regulating it. Consequently, law enforcement agencies pursue a case-by-case approach and prosecute sextortion either as a corruption case or as a gender-based violence case. Such an approach is not devoid of criticalities. On this point, one should consider, for example, the burdens of consent and the evidentiary system regarding sexual coercion or the unfair criminalization of victims since, technically, they are the ones who provide the sexual activity that constitutes the currency of the bribe. To overcome these concerns, this article suggests introducing an autonomous offense specifically designed to criminalize the conduct of those in a position of power demanding or receiving sexual services in exchange for treatments or services to which those who provide the sexual activity are already legally entitled. Placing the sextortion issue at the European level would fit within the current legal basis of the treaties (Article 83(1) and (2) TFEU) and align with current European initiatives in the field of corruption and gender-based violence

Could the minimum wage directive weather future financial storms? studying the potential to ensure upward convergence of minimum wages

The Minimum Wage Directive undoubtedly symbolises the EU's will to guarantee decent wage standards throughout all Member States. However, the question remains as to whether it also fulfils the role of a sufficiently compelling instrument which, in times of significant economic downturn, could prevent minimum wages from being frozen or even cut in order to achieve macroeconomic objectives. A similar question is whether the Directive entails an obligation to keep up with decent wages, particularly in times of higher inflation. With these questions in mind, this article looks at several key provisions of the Directive and analyses their potential to legally guarantee adequate minimum wages at all times. In this regard, we found that the most impactful provisions would be Article 4 on the promotion of collective agreements, Article 7 on the involvement of social partners in statutory minimum wage-setting, Article 5 on adequate statutory minimum wages, and Article 16 on non-regression. Even though these Articles bring some significant improvements, they are, according to our understanding, insufficient in respect of preventing Member States from adopting policies which can compromise decent minimum wage standards. Considering this, this article also discusses how several legal or policy instruments could potentially strengthen the Directive when it comes to guaranteeing decent minimum wage levels. These instruments include Article 4 of the Revised Social Charter and its interpretation by the European Committee of Social Rights, a Social Progress Protocol, and a Social Imbalance Procedure. While the Social Charter could bring stricter legal standards regarding minimum wage levels, the Social Progress Protocol and the Social Imbalance Procedure could both leverage more socially based EU policies which would, ultimately, enforce an unobstructed implementation of the Directive. However, none of these instruments is currently being used by the EU, and their implementation faces significant obstacles