Dániel G. Szabó
@gszd.bsky.social
480 followers 410 following 180 posts
Former research Officer at @democracyreporting.bsky.social on human rights and the rule of law. Past: Budapest City Hall, @hungarianhelsinki.bsky.social, member of the National Election Commission. Usual disclaimers.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
gszd.bsky.social
CEE vibes
szabolcspanyi.bsky.social
💥🏳️‍🌈Today, Hungarian police summoned Budapest mayor Gergely Karácsony as a suspect in a criminal investigation and took his mugshot—for organizing the banned Budapest Pride march, which drew 200–300K people.

His lawyer Csaba Tordai showed up wearing a Polish "Konstytucja" t-shirt.
gszd.bsky.social
The Court can issue interim measures in infringement cases, an essential tool for avoiding further damage. Current practice forbids the Court from issuing interim measures in preliminary rulings. Therefore, the length of proceedings is more important in preliminary ruling than in infringement cases.
gszd.bsky.social
1️⃣ C-45/87 R, Commission v Ireland;
2️⃣ C-65/18 P(R)-R, Nexans v Commission;
3️⃣ C-320/03 R, Commission v Austria;
4️⃣ C-503/06 R, Commission v Italy;
5️⃣ C‑78/14 PR, Commission v ANKO AE.
gszd.bsky.social
‼️ It would be unfair to judge the Court solely by the length of these cases, as this is the area where the Court acts decisively and swiftly using interim measures – within days if necessary. Some cases where interim measures were issued within three to six days:
gszd.bsky.social
💥 However, the fastest infringement case was decided within 129 days: C-333/04, Commission v Luxembourg. It was not the most complex case, as Luxembourg did not deny the delayed transposition of the ATEX 153 Directive on workers at risk of explosive atmospheres.
gszd.bsky.social
But how fast are these cases? Court statistics show direct actions, including infringement cases as a subcategory, average over 21 months.
gszd.bsky.social
🇪🇺 Infringement proceedings are the primary tool for ensuring that EU Member States comply with EU law. If a country violates Union law, the European Commission—or, rarely, another Member State—can initiate proceedings that may ultimately lead to the Court, which rules on the alleged infringement.
gszd.bsky.social
An infringement ruling in 129 days – How fast can the Court of Justice of the European Union be?
Reposted by Dániel G. Szabó
profpech.bsky.social
University College Dublin has just been announced as the host of the next round of the world's biggest event in public law! The 2026 @icon-s.bsky.social conference will be hosted in Belfield in July 2026 by the UCD Centre for Constitutional Studies led by Prof Carolan & @ucdschooloflaw.bsky.social
gszd.bsky.social
💡 What can we learn from this? The European Parliament elections are vital to EU democratic legitimacy, and the CJEU should be the ultimate guardian of the election process. To do so, it requires a special procedure to resolve election cases within days, if necessary.
gszd.bsky.social
... "However, these processes often have lengthy deadlines, which do not allow for the resolution of disputes during the electoral process."
gszd.bsky.social
..."There are also review mechanisms at the EU level: a national court can decide to initiate the preliminary reference procedure with the CJEU when an issue of EU law or compatibility of national law with EU law is raised in a domestic case by one of the parties"....
gszd.bsky.social
The @odihr.pl election monitoring report for the 2024 European Parliament elections writes: ...
gszd.bsky.social
These timelines are extremely short, but elections require this. Virtually all national jurisdictions have special judicial procedures for elections. The Venice Commission recommends a timeframe of "a little more" than three to five days.
gszd.bsky.social
3 days, April 3-6, 2020: Republican Nat’l Comm. v. Democratic Nat’l Comm., 589 U.S. ___, 140 S. Ct. 1205 (2020);
3: August 10-13, 2020: Republican Nat’l Comm. v. Common Cause R.I., 591 U.S. ___, 141 S. Ct. 206 (2020);
6: October 22-28, 2020: Wise v. Circosta, 592 U.S. ___, 141 S. Ct. 46 (2020).
gszd.bsky.social
This highly significant decision was made within 𝟒 days: the recount was ordered on 8 December, against which the SCOTUS granted a stay the next day. The case was argued on 11 December and decided a day later. There are even more SCOTUS cases decided this fast:
gszd.bsky.social
🇺🇸 The 2000 US presidential election was tight and controversial (by the time's standards). The presidency was at stake in the Florida recount, which was stopped by a Supreme Court order. This decision effectively awarded Florida's 25 Electoral College votes to George W. Bush, ensuring his victory.
gszd.bsky.social
🏃 If needed, the SCOTUS can decide within days, and the CJEU should adopt a similar emergency procedure. 🗳️ In some cases, for example, during elections, one can not wait for months.
gszd.bsky.social
A court ruling within days? Examples from the US Supreme Court, and the @eucourtofjustice.bsky.social.
gszd.bsky.social
📈 Data source: the IUROPA Database, a project coordinated by Daniel Naurin, Johan Lindholm, Urška Šadl and Anna Wallerman Ghavanini. It is a comprehensive, research-ready source of CJEU judgments from 1952 until 2023: www.iuropa.pol.gu.se/cjeu-databas....
The IUROPA Project
The IUROPA CJEU Database is the most complete collection of research-ready data about the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and European Union (EU) law.
www.iuropa.pol.gu.se
gszd.bsky.social
‼️ What does it mean? Finding a balance between acting quickly and conducting a thorough review is not easy. But despite its immense translation duties, the Court can find ways to issue judgments rapidly when needed.
gszd.bsky.social
There are other cases in which the Court delivered a judgment within 70-80 days outside the urgent procedure: Melki and Abdeli (C-188/10), Wightman and Others (C-621/18), Jippes and Others (C-189/01), and others.
gszd.bsky.social
🚄 The fastest-ever preliminary ruling was issued in only 40 days—surprisingly swiftly—in the Santesteban Goicoechea (C-296/08 PPU) case, which concerned the extradition of a detained person from 🇫🇷 France to 🇪🇸 Spain. In 20121, the Court answered the Adil case (C‑278/12 PPU) in 41 days.