Abstract:

Administrative cooperation between national and European administrations within the European Union is a central feature of European administrative law. The forms of administrative cooperation differ from subject to subject. Traditionally, lawyers would oppose centralized or direct community administration (by the EU administration, in particular by the European Commission in Brussels) to indirect administration (by the administrations of the member states). However, this dualism does not give a complete picture of the different forms of administration. Transnational effects of an administrative decision taken in one member state in other member states are of crucial importance today. The article proposes several models that can serve to describe the plurality of administrative decision making and cooperation within the European Union and outlines the functions of administrative cooperation. The law of administrative procedure of the European Union has not been fully codified so far. The article therefore discusses perspectives of a codification of European administrative law. As the legal traditions of administrative law differ from member state to member state, a codification will require a decision on the basic features that will structure European administrative law (such as lawfulness, procedural appropriateness, efficiency, acceptance).

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