COMECE: Legal Affairs Commission starts dialogue with Court of Justice of EU. Discussion also touched on Art. 17 of Treaty

(Brussels) The Commission on Legal Affairs of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), a body made up of legal experts appointed by the EU Bishops’ Conferences, has established a “dialogue with the Court of Justice of the EU”, COMECE said in a statement. Dialogue was established on 31 January 2020, when a COMECE legal affairs delegation met with several judges of the Court to “discuss the increasing impact of the Court’s jurisprudence in the Member States’ legal systems”. According to Mgr. Theodorus Hoogenboom, who chairs the expert group of the Catholic Church, “this fruitful dialogue” has “brought to the attention of the judges legal specificities and some key points of the Catholic Church in the EU”. Exchanges with the judges focused on “the importance of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU” and on “crucial fields addressed by the Court’s jurisprudence, including non-discrimination, cross-border family law and EU-State aid rules”. Discussion also focused on the “protection provided to State-Church relations by Article 17” of the Treaty.
Marco Calvarese