The President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria, Pavlina Panova, and the President of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), Koen Lenaerts, opened the third edition of the international conference EUnited in Diversity in Sofia. The prestigious forum is held for the first time in Bulgaria and is jointly organized by the two institutions.
“It is an exceptional honor and pride for me to welcome all of you, the representatives of the institutions most directly entrusted with the role of guardians of constitutionalism and the rule of law in the European Union, here in Sofia, as host of the third edition of the EUnited in Diversity conference.” With these words, President of the Constitutional Court Pavlina Panova began her opening speech before representatives of the constitutional jurisdictions of 21 EU Member States.
Pavlina Panova emphasized that constitutional judges, supreme judges, and judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union are not merely representatives of the highest judicial institutions: “We are called upon to be the voice of the collective self-awareness of the rule of law in Europe, since it is to us that the peoples of Europe have entrusted the responsibility of being the ultimate guardians of law, human rights, and the very foundations of constitutional democracy,” she stated.
In his opening address, President of the CJEU Koen Lenaerts noted that the European Union understood as a common legal order, is founded on the preservation and promotion of common values and structures. “To that end, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Constitutional – or equivalent – Courts of the 27 Member States must work closely together and must trust each other”, he stressed.
“Today, thanks to the tireless efforts of President Panova and her team, we gather here in the beautiful city of Sofia to discuss four topics over the next two days. The focus of those topics is, to some extent, different from those discussed previously in Riga and in The Hague. That is the result of a deliberate choice by the organisers, who aimed to highlight the fact that the dialogue between the Court of Justice and the Constitutional — or equivalent — Courts of the 27 Member States is not confined to issues relating to fundamental rights“, clarified President Lenaerts.
According to him, “while fundamental rights are an essential component of that dialogue, they do not provide the full picture of constitutional justice in the EU common legal order. Structural aspects also constitute key components of that dialogue.”
“In democratic societies, national constitutions lay down a system of checks and balances which seeks to promote and protect the values of respect for liberty, equality, democracy and the rule of law. It is for national Constitutional Courts to uphold that system, by preserving the horizontal and vertical allocation of powers provided for in the constitution. In the EU legal order, the Court of Justice fulfils a similar task, in so far as it also strives to protect the system of checks and balances laid down in the Treaties, which seeks to protect and promote the same values”, Koen Lenaerts added.
At the beginning of the conference, an address on behalf of the President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) was delivered by Judge Diana Kovacheva of the ECHR.
Following the official opening, representatives of the constitutional jurisdictions of EU Member States participating in the forum continued with the first panel discussion, devoted to the topic: ‘The Allocation of Competences between the Member States and the European Union‘.
Speakers in the panel included: Constantinos Lycourgos, President of Chamber, Court of Justice of the European Union; Zdeněk Kühn, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic; Yanaki Stoilov, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria; and Cándido Conde-Pumpido Tourón, President of the Constitutional Court of Spain.
The discussion was moderated by Véronique Malbec, Member of the Constitutional Council of France.
Part of the afternoon program of the forum was the second panel discussion on the topic: ‘Identity of the EU and EU constitutionalism in times of crisis: Constitutional Courts and the Court of Justice‘.
The moderator was Nevin Feti, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Bulgaria. Speakers in this panel included: Maciej Szpunar, First Advocate General, Court of Justice of the European Union; Giovanni Amoroso, President of the Constitutional Court of Italy; Vytautas Mizaras, Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Lithuania; Luc Lavrysen, President of the Constitutional Court of Belgium (Dutch linguistic group).
