THE EUROPEAN UNION AND IRELAND’S LINKS WITH EUROPE
Because of these circumstances, the EU: ● Is seeking judicial (legal) co-operation to help individuals with cross-border cases (cases between people in different countries)
● Decides which EU country has jurisdiction (power, authority) to try particular cases involving cross-border matters
● Ensures judgements in one country are recognised and enforced in other EU countries.
The EU and justice – an example of judicial (legal) co-operation
Facebook uses cookies, social plug-ins and pixels to track users across the internet to sell targeted (specific) advertising.
The Belgian Privacy Commission challenged this practice and won cases in the Belgian courts.
But Facebook said it should only be investigated by the Irish privacy watchdog (Data Protection Commission) since its European headquarters was in Ireland. ●
This case was taken to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which ruled that national privacy commissions are allowed to begin proceedings themselves in certain cases. This opens the way for national privacy commissions to take cases against US tech giants who have headquarters in Ireland such as Google, Twitter and Apple as well as Facebook.
Assessing Your Learning
1. How has the EU progressed human rights? 2. What was the Charter of Fundamental Rights? 3. How did the EEC (EU) promote women’s rights in Ireland?
4. Give one occasion when the EU imposed sanctions on a non-EU country for human rights abuses.
5. Why was there a migrant and refugee crisis in 2015–16? 6. Mention one action taken by the EU to solve the migrant and refugee crisis? 7. How successful was the EU in solving the migrant and refugee crisis?
See Chapter 27A in the Skills Book for further questions.
27A
Ireland’s Links with Europe
Early Christian Ireland The Pope in Rome sent missionaries, including St Patrick, to Ireland and these missionaries were mainly responsible for converting the country to Christianity (see p. 45).
Analyse the evolution and development of Ireland’s links with Europe
In later centuries, Irish missionaries were responsible for carrying Christianity into different parts of Europe and founding monasteries there (see p. 53).