January 2025
Several members of The Good Lobby Profs acted as lecturers and/or mentors within the framework of the democracy report project led by “Our Rule of Law”. In its first phase, over 60 young democracy rapporteurs were invited to a series of expert lectures before attending a bootcamp at Humboldt University Berlin. The project concluded with the publication in September 2025 of multiple country reports looking at the state of democracy through six key themes such as justice systems and participation in governance.
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February 2025
The applications for leave to intervene submitted by The Good Lobby and RECLAIM, along with the foundation Fundación Hay Derecho, in support of the form of order sought by the appellants in the MEDEL et al (appeal) Case C-555/24 P were rejected by order of the President of the Court of Justice of 4 February 2025. According to the order, the defence of judicial independence against adverse EU action is not viewed as a transversal public interest which can be defended by NGOs specialising in the defence of the rule of law. This raises a paradox as the order suggests only associations of judges could be granted leave to join a case lodged by associations of judges found previously to lack standing to bring the case as plaintiffs (see however the Opinion of CJUE Advocate General Ćapeta of 16 April 2026).
May 2025
Alongside more than three hundreds civil society organisations, The Good Lobby Profs endorsed the open letter addressed to President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner Michael McGrath and relating to the Hungarian bill entitled “Transparency of Public Law”. Amongst other measures, the open letter called on the European Commission to immediately request the CJEU to grant interim measures in the ongoing infringement procedure on the Law on the Defence of National Sovereignty (pending Case C-829/24). To this day, the European Commission has failed to do so. On 12 February 2026, Advocate General advised the Court to find this law incompatible with EU law on account inter alia of the law’s chilling effect and infringement of several fundamental freedoms such as freedom of expression and freedom of association.
June 2025
The Good Lobby Profs submitted a formal complaint to the European Commission under the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation, urging immediate action in response to ongoing democratic backsliding in Slovakia under Prime Minister Robert Fico. To this day, however, the European Commission has failed to reply to this complaint raising questions about the effectiveness of the procedure established under Regulation 2020/2092. This follows a lack of prompt acknowledgement at the time of the lodging of the complaint.
October 2025
The Good Lobby Profs addressed two open letters to the President of the European Commission and to the European Parliament’s relevant committees urging them to take immediate and transparent action in light of the latest revelations concerning Olivér Várhely’s spying operations targeting EU institutions while serving as a senior diplomat at the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the EU. To this day, the President of the European Commission has failed to take action apart from setting up an “internal group” to look into the claims reported in multiple newspapers. The membership, status and terms of reference of this “internal group” remain unknown.
November 2025
Several members of The Good Lobby Profs contributed to the second edition of the CEU Democracy Institute Rule of Law Clinic report entitled Rule of Law beyond the EU Member States: Assessing the Union’s Performance 2025. This report offers a synthetic assessment of the EU’s performance across several fields: justice system; anti-corruption measures; media freedom; the internal market; and institutional checks and balances.
Several members of The Good Lobby Profs also contributed to the 2025 edition of the report ‘Justice Delayed, Justice Denied – The non-implementation of European Courts’ Judgments and the Rule of Law in the EU’, a joint publication of the European Implementation Network (EIN) and Democracy Reporting International (DRI)
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December 2025
On 2 December 2025, the four associations and organisations of judges acting as plaintiffs in the pending CJEU grand chamber appeal Case C-555/24 P were heard. Their appeal is directed against an order of 4 June 2024 of the Grand Chamber of the General Court dismissing the actions brought by them against the EU Council decision approving the recovery and resilience plan for Poland as inadmissible because of lack of standing and legal interest of the four, even when representing suspended Polish judges (cases T-530/22 to T-533/22). Several members of The Good Lobby Profs have been assisting the legal team consisting Carsten Zatschler SC and Emily Egan McGrath BL, Senior Counsel, and Prof. Daniel Sarmiento, lawyer at EUNITY, assisted by Anne Bateman, Solicitor of Philip Lee LLP, Dublin.
In an Opinion issued on 16 April 2026, CJUE Advocate General Ćapeta advised the Court to set aside the order of the General Court and be referred back to the General Court for a ruling on the substance. According to the Advocate General, the General Court did not inter alia sufficiently address the argument that, in the light of the principle of effective judicial protection, associations may challenge EU acts affecting their own interests.
On 22 December 2025, over 50 academics and experts in digital markets, law and policy, including several members of The Good Lobby Profs wrote to the Members of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary to express their serious concerns about statements made before the Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Subcommittee (the Antitrust Subcommittee) during its 16 December 2025 hearing on the impact of the European Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA) and other related legislation.
