Il “battesimo del fuoco” della direttiva sui prodotti del tabacco, tra esigenze di armonizzazione e di tutela della salute pubblica

Translated title of the contribution: [Autom. eng. transl.] The "baptism of fire" of the Tobacco Products Directive, between harmonization requirements and the protection of public health

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

On 4 May 2016, the ECJ delivered three judgments concerning the validity of the “Tobacco Products Directive”. This article focuses on the legal basis of this controversial act and on the fundamental rights’ restrictions provided for therein. As for the legal basis, the ECJ's judgments found that, in order to avoid the negative impact of divergent national legislations on the internal market, the EU is allowed to exercise its harmonizing competence in the field of public health, despite this policy being essentially reserved to the Member States. This finding was essentially based on ECJ’s previous case law. With regard to the issue of the fundamental rights’ restrictions raised by private parties in two of the judgments, the Court found these restrictions to be justified under the general limitation clause of art. 52 of the Charter. In more specific terms, the Court affirmed that, in the cases at hand, the EU was allowed to strike a fair balance between the need to respect fundamental rights and freedoms and the need to protect public health. This conclusion was predicated on the provisions of the TFEU and the Charter concerning the attainment of “a high level of protection” of human health. As suggested in this study, this approach of the ECJ can be read as part of a recent attitude towards referring more extensively to art. 35 of the Charter (“Health care”).
Translated title of the contribution[Autom. eng. transl.] The "baptism of fire" of the Tobacco Products Directive, between harmonization requirements and the protection of public health
Original languageItalian
Pages (from-to)1087-1096
Number of pages10
JournalEUROPEAN PAPERS
Volume2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Armonizzazione
  • Carta dei diritti fondamentali
  • Competenze dell'UE
  • EU Charter
  • EU competences
  • Mercato interno
  • Salute umana
  • diritti dell'uomo
  • fundamental rights
  • harmonisation
  • health
  • internal market

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '[Autom. eng. transl.] The "baptism of fire" of the Tobacco Products Directive, between harmonization requirements and the protection of public health'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this