Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid

Development cooperation and humanitarian aid constitute central instruments of the European Union’s foreign policy. They help shape the Union’s relation with neighbouring countries, foster ties with traditional and new allies, and advance European interests in the world. They are also central for the Union’s position and visibility in the world, as they inject European ideas into developments around the globe. Ultimately, these policy areas are fundamental for the Union’s self-perception as an increasingly active, value-based, international actor.

The Single European Market in Goods

The focus of this chapter is on the European Union administrative law that has arisen in the specific policy setting of the internal market. The creation of the internal market, which ‘shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured’, is at the heart of the European Union integration project and consequently also of the EU’s administrative network structure. A number of the other chapters that follow in this collection are closely related to the present discussion, either through the specific type of product concerned, or by virtue of exploring a particular policy objective intertwined with the broader framework of the internal market. This chapter concentrates on the internal market and its administration more narrowly understood. Its focus is mainly on the administrative tasks, structures, procedures, and enforcement in the field of product regulation. However, this should not overlook the extent to which the underlying provisions, principles, and practices in this field relate, more widely, to the whole body of EU administrative law.

Enlargement Policy

The EU enlargement policy was labelled in 2003—shortly before the ‘big bang’ enlargement of 2004—the most successful EU external relations policy. Due to that success, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has, since 2003, copied certain characteristics of the policy and instruments. However, after the 2004 accession of twelve new Member States and the subsequent accession of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 and finally of Croatia in 2013, a general enlargement fatigue can be diagnosed among the existing EU Member States. EU Member States have become wary of further accession in times of recurring crises of the European Union project and in light of the challenge of post-accession integration of new Member States, especially of Bulgaria and Romania, as an ongoing project. At the same time they are not willing to abandon such an effective tool for influencing and aligning third countries’ policies to EU law and for stimulating reforms in national administrative and legal orders of neighbouring countries in anticipation of accession. Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey have started accession negotiations, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia secured a recognized candidate status, while Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo are being viewed as potential candidates. While the enlargement policy is still in

A Conceptual Understanding of EU Sectoral Administrative Law

Any attempt to survey the sectoral administrative law of the European Union begs a number of fundamental questions. First, how do we understand ‘administrative law’, especially in relation to a supranational structure and system, such as that of the Union? Secondly, what exactly might we understand by ‘sectoral’ or ‘specialized’ administrative law, again especially in the context of the EU? Thirdly, just what is the difference between European Union law as such, and its administrative law. These distinctions, and the definitions attempted, are not addressed here just as scholarly abstractions. We take the view that understanding them and differentiating between these terms will make clear from the outset what this book attempts to cover, especially with respect to the concepts of both general EU administrative law and specialized EU administrative law employed here (which may or may not be similar to conceptualizations found in national contexts where these terms are employed).

Energy and Trans-European Networks

The European Union has established a growing and increasingly complex legal framework for production, trade and consumption of energy during the last decades. In the beginning, the former European Communities played only a very limited role, as energy policy fell mainly into the competences of the Member States. Neither the Treaty on the European Community for Coal and Steel (1951) nor the EURATOM-Treaty (1957) limited the national competences to regulate the national energy mix or the structure of energy industries. A remnant of this former primacy of national competencies can be found in Article 192(2) TFEU.

Synthesis and Assessment

As set out in our introductory chapter, this work has been designed as an examination of the diverse forms and structures of administrative law applicable within various, specific areas of European Union policies. Its intention is to allow insight into the administrative implementation of Union policies in parallel with one another, reviewing and reflecting on both the differences and commonalities of approach in the varied policy sectors. The administrative differences between sectors may, in fact, lie simply in the policy-specific search for answers to problems already solved in another context, be the consequence of pure ‘path dependency’, or reflect a carefully designed approach which takes into account existing general legal principles, but does so in applying them to a discrete policy field. The starting assumption of this work was that some elements of Union administrative law are applicable cross-sectorally, but much is particular to individual policy settings. In fact, only relatively little existing EU law of a cross-sectoral kind can serve as an—even nascent—body of coherent, general Union administrative law. Most of the law applicable to the practical implementation of EU policy and its legal embodiment—broadly, the administrative law of the Union—has arisen in policy-specific settings. Perhaps the most widely

Monetary Policy and Euro Area Governance in the EMU

One of the European Union’s most ambitious policy projects to date is the ‘economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro’ (EMU, Article 3(4) TEU). The EMU’s two polices—the economic union and the monetary union—are an unequal set of twins. On one hand, the monetary union’s central elements are well developed: as an element of substance, the introduction of the euro as a single currency; as an institutional achievement, the creation of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) together with the European Central Bank (ECB) on the EU level as a highly independent body having the power to adopt a diverse range of measures. Additionally, the Treaties contain specific provisions on the goals and principles of monetary policy.

The Common Agricultural Policy

‘While the Common Agricultural Policy may be well known for the political and financial problems to which it gives rise, the legal issues underlying it have not been so widely discussed’. Usher went on to note that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) lay behind many institutional developments, that agriculture was the first single market, and it was in the context of agricultural disputes that the Court of Justice of the European Union developed many of the general principles of Community (now European Union) law. So, whilst many will be familiar with the broad contribution that the CAP has made over the last sixty years, there are few who are more familiar with the legal intricacies of the policy. Part of the reason for this may be that close engagement with the administration of the CAP is not an easy exercise. Whilst the European institutions are responsible for setting not only the broad framework of the policy but also, in certain cases, the details of various aspects of the policy, implementation has been devolved to the Member States.

Control of State Aid: A policy specific area of EU administrative law

The regulatory framework of State aid is central to the review of the use of public resources in the European Union. Article 107 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) defines State aid as any aid which may distort competition and affect trade between Member States, by favouring some undertakings or the production of certain goods. The Treaty provisions entrust the Commission with the prevention of aid granted by Member States which could unduly distort competition in the internal market. When applying the Treaty provisions, the Commission not only ensures that the Member States do not provide aid limiting competition and tilting a level playing field, but also defines growth-oriented approaches and shapes policy instruments within the context of subsidization.

Data Protection within Police and Judicial Cooperation

The main focus of this chapter is on administrative procedures for data protection in the area of Police and Judicial Cooperation (PJC), an integral part of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) in the European Union. This includes public security, as far as it falls within the scope of Union law, and the AFSJ. This is to be distinguished from national security which falls outside the scope of EU law. The administrative procedures discussed here concern the compliance with, and supervision and enforcement of data protection provisions applicable to EU and national authorities competent in the police and justice sector. As well, the mechanisms for EU–Member State cooperation in protecting personal data in the course of police and justice operations fall within this scope.