Pauliine Koskelo

Die derzeitige Lage der Europäischen Union – eine Fußangel für diejenigen, die sich ihren Grundwerten verpflichtet fühlen?

Thyssen Lectures in Griechenland 2019, 189 Seiten, dreisprachig (Englisch, Deutsch, Neugriechisch)
Verlag der Buchhandlung Klaus Bittner 2020, € 12,-
978-3-926397-48-5

Article 2 TEU enumerates the European Union’s core values, thereby setting out its legal foundation. The key components are encompassed by the notion of the rule of law. These are the basic commitments which each EU Member State must live up to, and the demands which they must attach to each other. The phrase „without the rule of law there can be no European Union“ is entirely correct as a matter of legal principle. It is also of vital importance for the union to function as intended. The reality, however, is gloomier. Faced with a serious degradation of the rule of law in some Member States, it transpires that the EU is dangerously weak in upholding its constitutional core principles. Non-compliant Member States can neither be expelled nor effectively brought to come round. Even financial subsidies cannot be withheld. What emerges is a pattern of entrapment for the Member States that do remain faithful to the rule of law. Unless the union is able to find ways of saving itself from internal decay, both its funcitoning and its legitimacy are under serious threat.

With the „Thyssen Lectures“ the Fritz Thyssen Foundation is continuing a tradition that is initiated beginning in Germany in 1979 and followed by venues at a series of universitites in the Czech Republic, Israel, the Russian Republic and, most recently, in Turkey. The series in Greece is being organised for a period of four years under the leadership of Prof. Vassilios Skouris, former President of the European Court of Justice and current Director of the Centre of International and European Economic Law (CIELL), and is dedicated to the framework topic of „the EU as a community of European law and values“.

Pauliine Koskelo was born 1956 in Salo, Finland. Having completed her legal studies at the University of Helsinki, she served at the Finnish Ministry of Justice as Advisor and Senior Adviser for Legislative Affairs, working on various legislative reforms in the fields of civil, commercial and insolvency law as well as international legal co-operation, including matters relating to Finland’s European integration. In 1995, she joined the Legal Directorate of the European Investment Bank, as Head of Division, Assistant General Counsel and Co-Director, mainly in charge of institutional legal issues. In 2000, she was appointed Justice of the Supreme Court of Finland, and in 2005, she was appointed President of the Supreme Court, in which capacity she served from 2006 to 2015. Since 2016, she is Judge of the European Court of Human Rights. She was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order or the White Rose of Finland (2009). Sh holds the following honorary doctorates: Dr. econ.h.c., Hanken University, School of Economics, Helsinki (2009); Dr. jur.h.c., Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki (2010); Dr. jur.h.c., Faculty of Law, University of Turku (2015). She received the Defensor Legis Award of the Finnish Bar Association (2015).

nach oben