Chasing the European Court of Justice: On Some (Political) Attempts to Hijack the European Integration Process

This article gives some examples of State interference in the interpretative activity of the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), looking at the 1990s, at the more recent past and, finally, at the clauses introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, which represents the latest link in the "semi-permanent Treaty revision process" (de Witte). The article is divided into three parts: the first part will introduce the peculiarities of the ECJ's interpretative activity, briefly recalling the debate on the specificity of the interpretation of EU law. The second part will be devoted to some recent and less recent attempts to hijack of the acquis communautaire ("the past"), while the third part will focus on the recent novelties introduced by the Lisbon Treaty and on the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (EUCFR) and its explanations ("the future"). Finally, some concluding remarks will be presented at the end of the article.