The Broad Scope Of Article 34 TFEU Does Not Restrict The Ability Of Member States To Regulate Products: EU Law Assignment, MU, Ireland

Answer ALL THREE questions

Question 1

The broad scope of Article 34 TFEU does not restrict the ability of Member States to regulate products in accordance with their national priorities because it is very easy for a Member State to justify their rules if they do breach Article 34 TFEU.

Discuss the above statement with reference to the case law of the CJEU.

Question 2

Arial is a Danish national, who has been living in Sweden for several years. During her time there, she meets Eric (a Swedish national), and they move back to Denmark to start a new life together.

Only two months after moving to Denmark, Arial and Eric have an enormous falling out. Eric moves out of their shared house and rents an apartment on his own. He hopes to reconcile with Arial eventually, so he plans to stay in Denmark for the foreseeable future.  Eric does not have a job – Arial has a well-paid job and was supporting them both – but he has a good amount of money saved up from his time in Sweden.

Three months go by, and Eric has not yet reconciled with Arial. His savings are starting to run low, so he applies for a number of jobs so that he can support himself in the future. A further four months go by, and he has been turned down by all the employers he has applied to. By now, Eric’s savings have run out, and there is no realistic prospect of him finding a job in the near future. He is just about managing to make enough money for food and a bed at a local hostel, as the owner of a local bar took pity on him and pays him to spend a couple of hours cleaning the bar once every week.

One night, while he is in the bar, Eric sees Arial. She is with Sebastian, who she has been dating. Eric is upset and starts a fight with Sebastian, which ends with both men being arrested and spending a night in the local police station. Eric is released the next day, but the Danish authorities inform him that in two weeks they have scheduled him for deportation back to Sweden – they believe he will likely try to fight with Sebastian again, and they note that he has no job and no means of supporting himself.

Eric, desperate to avoid deportation (and having been told by the bar owner not to bother coming back), looks into starting his own business, as a way of earning money. When he lived in Sweden he was a personal trainer, so he contacts a local gym to see if they will promote him to the gym’s clients. However, the gym staff points out to Eric that he needs to go through a vetting process with the Danish Ministry of Sport before he can advertise himself as a personal trainer. Eric looks up this process and finds out that, although anyone with a relevant personal trainer qualification from Denmark can complete the vetting process in one week, it takes three weeks for anyone with a non-Danish personal trainer qualification to complete the process.

Advise Eric on whether EU law will allow him to remain in Denmark.

Question 3

Jasmine runs a small but successful talk show, based in Ireland. Her show is broadcast in the other Member States, and she regularly has guests from the other Member States on her show.

Her next planned guest, Aladdin, is a very well-known naturalist from Portugal. The plan is for him to bring with him a selection of live reptiles from his nature reserve in Portugal so that he can talk about them on the show. The plan was also for Aladdin to promote his nature reserve at the same time.

However, the Irish authorities inform Jasmine that she must secure a special kind of license to bring live animals into Ireland. This license costs a significant amount of money. Moreover, the Irish authorities also inform Jasmine that any form of advertising that uses live images of live animals is prohibited in Ireland. Both of these rules are designed to protect the dignity of animals.

Advise Jasmine on whether she can rely on EU law to challenge either of these two rules.