Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Contents
I Introduction: A scattered administration
II The pre-Lisbon world
III The Treaty of Lisbon and the different interpretations of
article 298 TFEU
IV The post-Lisbon world
V
Abbreviations
ECJ (or CJEU)
EU
European Union
TFEU
ECHR
CFR
ReNEUAL
I Introduction
The aim of this paper is to entangle the confusion around the concept of European administration,
first looking at the situation before the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty and article 298
TFEU, then we will examine the possible interpretations of the latter, and finally we will take a look
at what changed after article 298 had been settled, so to have a more complete idea of the concept of
European administration according to the wording of the article in question.
the non-involvement of EU institutions from external influence. Yet this may be a difficult and
narrow reading of the article, since it does not fit within the framework considered in the previous
chapter, and it would be then excessive, considering that those intentions can be achieved through
article 336 TFEU (the legal basis of the Staff Regulations).
The second interpretation of article 298 would be to read the clause open, efficient and
independent European administration, so that to cover not only the implementation of rules of
internal administration, but also procedural rules to regulate the relationship between EU
administration and those affected by it. That said, this interpretation would not cover Member state
administration in acting in the context of shared administration, given that article 298(1) specify
that it would be applicable to the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union.
However, the third and, in my opinion, more complete interpretation is built on the second one but
considers also national administration when it works in the EU law area.
The support of this argument can be found in the terminology of article 298(1), which asserts that
the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union shall have the support of an open,
efficient and independent European administration. This choice of words can include national
administration when acting within the domain of EU law as it considers the support in terms of
European and not EU administration.
common interest for the European citizens, without hindering Member states diversity. With this in
mind, we now have the necessary information to reconsider the concept of European administration,
under three basic terms that should summarise the very aim of article 298. The three Cs of
European administration Communication, Cooperation and Coordination 5 as Carol Harlow and
Richard Rawlings affirm in their book Process and Procedure in EU administration, are the super
glue of the Network of governance, which is rather similar to the scope of the creation of article
298. A more communicative intra- and inter-institutional environment would promote openness and
transparency6; cooperation and coordination between European institutions 7 would develop a more
efficient administrative standardisation and procedural system. For the time being, the fact that the
Union needs a coherent, solid and exhaustive set of rules of administrative nature, makes it difficult
for citizens to assert their administrative rights under Union law.
5 Actually in the book there is a fourth C which is Conflict. We do not mention it due to length constraint,
as it would need a more detailed discussion in order to be understood properly.
6 These two values have been matter of discussion in recent literature, since both are predicated as essential
in the Treaty, in effect, the former is believed by the EU institutions to be in conflict with efficiency, creating
a sort of trade-off between the two; while the latter is gaining strength from the ECJ, although in the
administrative area the introduction of the term General presumption of secrecy is rather inconsistent.
7 Meaning both institutions, offices, bodies and agencies of the European Union and Member states
administrations when working in the EU law field.
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