EUROPEAN
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
PRINCIPLES
Unit 8
Preview
 Administrative law
 Reliability and accountability
 Openness and transparency
 Accountability
 Efficiency and effectiveness
 Legal terms
Administrative law
 The set of principles and rules applying
to the organization and management of
public administration and to the relations
between administration and citizens
Main administrative law
principles
 1. Reliability and predictability
 2. Openness
 3. Accountability
 4. Efficiency and effectiveness
Reliability and predictability
(Legal certainty or judicial security)
 The rule of law
 Legal competence
 Administrative discretion
 Proportionality
 Procedural fairness
 Timeliness
 Professionalism and professional
integrity
Rule of law
 The absolute predominance of regular
law, so that the government has no
arbitrary authority over the citizen:
 equal subjection of all (including officials)
to law administered by courts
 Citizens’ personal rights and freedoms
are protected by law
Legal competence
 Public authorities can only decide on
matters for which they have legal
jurisdiction
 Power to decide on an issue of public
interest which legally enables the public
authority not only to take decisions but
also to take responsibility
Administrative discretion
 Discretionary decisions – within a legal
framework, some degree of choice left to
the decision-maker
 Law cannot foresee every circumstance
in future situations
Principles governing the
exercise of discretion
 To act in good faith
 To pursue the public interest in a
reasonable way
 To follow fair procedures
 To uphold the requirement of equal
treatment
 To respect the notion of proportionality
Proportionality
 A principle of the EU law requiring that
action taken by the EU does not go
beyond what is necessary to achieve the
objectives of the EC Treaty
 Originally developed by ECJ, it is now
incorporated into Article 5, together with
subsidiarity
Proportionality
 Administrative action should be
proportionate to the end pursued by the
law, without depriving citizens of more
than is strictly necessary for achieving
that end
 Reasonableness
 Example: compulsory purchasing orders
(expropriation) – individuals are deprived
of property rights for the sake of public
interest
Proportionality
 Breach of the principle of proportionality
can be used as a ground for judicial
review of acts of the EU institutions
 In order to be proportionate, action must
be appropriate, necessary, and not
impose an excessive burden on those
affected by it
Procedural fairness
 Procedures safeguarding accurate and
impartial application of the law, and
attention to social values, such as
respect for persons and protection of
their dignity
Timeliness
 Supports the principles of predicatbility
and reliability
 Delays of public administration –
frustration, injustice or severe harm for
both public interest and private interests;
associated with inefficiency and
incompetence of civil servants
Timeliness
 Clear time limits within which things must
be done
Professionalism
 Professional integrity: impartiality and
professional independence
 Absence of bias
 Legal provisions prohibiting civil servants
from getting involved in decisions
affecting matters in which they may have
a personal or vested interest
Professionalism
 Bribery, duress, uncontrolled political
ambition – causes for the loss of
independence
Professionalism
 A civil service system where civil
servants have a specific statute
regulating their right to career
advancement, setting up rights and
duties, fair and well-regulated income,
sound disciplinary provisions
Openness and Transparency
 Openess: administration – available for
outside scrutiny
 Transparency: adminstration can be
“seen through” for the purpose of
scrutiny and supervision
Openess and Transparency
 1) Allow anyone affected by an
administrative action to know its basis;
 2) render outside scrutiny of
administrative action by supervisory
institutions easier
Openess and Transparency
 Necessary instruments for the rule of
law, equality before the law, and
accountability
Openess and Transparency
 Protect the public interest as they reduce
the likelihood of maladministration and
corruption
 Essential for protecting individual rights
Openness and Transparency
 An administrative act or decision should
be accompanied by a statement of
reasons: all the facts and evidence, as
well as the legal justification
Openness and Transparency
 Statement of reasons – important when
an application from an interested party is
being rejected; grounds and sufficient
degree of justification to enable the
interested party to prepare an appeal
against the administrative decision
Accountability
 Any administrative body should be
answerable for its actions to other
administrative, legislative or judicial
authorities
Accountability
 No authority should be exempt from
scrutiny or review by others
 Review by the courts, appeal to a
superior administrative body,
investigation by an ombudsman,
inspection by a special board or
commission, scrutiny by a parliamentary
committee
Accountability
 Essential to ensure values such as
efficiency, reliability and predictability of
public administration
 Enhances the rule of law
 Protects individual rights and public
interest
Efficiency
 A managerial value consisting of
maintaining a good ratio between
resources employed and results attained
Effectiveness
 Ensuring that the performance of public
administration is successful in achieving
the goals and solving the public
problems set for it by law and
government
Administrative law principles
 Not formalized in written laws or
systematized in a code
 Ethically and legally binding
Legal terms
 Reliability
 Pouzdanost
 Predictability
 Predvidljivost
 Arbitrariness
 Samovolja, proizvoljnost
 Proportionality
 Načelo razmjernosti
Legal terms
 Scrutiny
 Nadzor, temeljito ispitivanje
 Supervision
 Nadzor, kontrola
 Accountability
 Odgovornost
Legal terms
 Efficiency
 Učinkovitost
 Effectiveness
 Operativnost, uspješnost, postizanje
željenih rezultata
 Binding
 obvezujući
Put the verbs in brackets into
the appropriate forms:
 Timeliness in the action of public
administration strongly ____(support) the
principles of predictability and reliability.
Delay of public administration in
___(make) decisions and ___(take)
action can cause frustration, injustice or
severe harm for both the public interest
and for private interests.
Key
 Timeliness in the action of public
administration strongly supports the
principles of predictability and reliability.
Delay of public administration in making
decisions and taking action can cause
frustration, injustice or severe harm for
both the public interest and for private
interests.
Put the verbs in brackets into
the appropriate forms
 Delay can ___(result) from inadequate
resources or lack of political resolve. But
often it ____(associate, passive) with
inefficiency and incompetence of civil
servants. Legal rules can help to
alleviate the problem by ____(set out)
clear time limits within which things must
____(do, passive).
Key
 Delay can result from inadequate
resources or lack of political resolve. But
often it is associated with inefficiency
and incompetence of civil servants.
Legal rules can help to alleviate the
problem by setting out clear time limits
within which things must be done.
Fill in the missing words: bias, civil,
integrity, Professional, relies
 Professionalism and professional___ in
the ___ service supports the notions of
reliability and predictability of public
administration. ___integrity of civil
service ____ upon the notions of
impartiality and professional
independence. Impartiality refers to the
absence of ____.
Key
 Professionalism and professional
integrity in the civil service supports the
notions of reliability and predictability of
public administration. Professional
integrity of civil service relies upon the
notions of impartiality and professional
independence. Impartiality refers to the
absence of bias.
assessing, domain, inclination,
interest, particular, right, unjustified
 Within the public administration ___, bias
means having an___ in favour of a___
outcome in ___ a given situation,
causing as a consequence an ___or
unfair detriment to the general ____ or to
the ____ of other interested parties.
Key
 Within the public administration domain,
bias means having an inclination in
favour of a particular outcome in
assessing a given situation, causing as
a consequence an unjustified or unfair
detriment to the general interest or to
the right of other interested parties.
Translate
 Pokušaj utvrđivanja administrativnih
načela uglavnom je pravni po svojemu
usmjerenju. Dokument SIGMA započinje
tezom da je unatoč nacionalnim
razlikama moguće dogovoriti zajedničku
definiciju upravnog prava kao: “niza
načela i pravila koji se primjenjuju na
organizaciju i upravljanje javnom
upravom, te odnosima između uprave i
građana.”
Translation
 Europski sud pravde ima važnu ulogu u
oblikovanju tih zajedničkih načela
upravnog prava: “Može se reći da danas
postoji zajednički acquis zakonskih
načela upravnog prava koja je razvio
Europski sud pravde.” Glavna načela
upravnog prava zajednička
zapadnoeuropskim zemljama mogu se
sistematizirati na sljedeći način:
Translation
 1. Pouzdanost i predvidivost (pravna i sudbena
sigurnost. Dokument opisuje brojna načela i
mehanizme upravnog prava u nastojanju da se
iskorijeni proizvoljnost u vođenju javnih poslova:
pravna država; pravna sposobnost, upravne
diskrecione ovlasti (sloboda odlučivanja);
načelo razmjernosti; načelo proceduralne
pravičnosti; pravovremenost; profesionalizam i
profesionalni integritet (poštenje).
 2. Otvorenost (uprava je dostupna
vanjskoj kontroli) i transparentnost (kroz
upravu se može “vidjeti” u svrhu kontrole
i nadzora)
 3. Odgovornost: svako tijelo javne
uprave treba odgovarati za svoje
postupke drugim upravnim,
zakonodavnim ili sudbenim vlastima
 4. Učinkovitost (vrijednost u upravljanju
koja se u osnovi sastoji u dobrom
odnosu između uloženih sredstava i
postignutih rezultata) i uspješnost (kojom
se osigurava da je rad javne uprave
uspješan u ostvarivanju ciljeva i
rješavanju javnih problema koje određuju
zakon i vlada).
 Ove zajedničke temeljne vrijednosti i
načela javne uprave dovele su do
približavanja nacionalnih javnih uprava.
Treba primijetiti da navedena upravna
načela nisu formalizirana u obliku
pisanih zakona, ili sistematizirana u
zakoniku. No, ona su ipak etički i pravno
obvezujuća.
 Prema dokumentu, postoji “zajednički
acquis koji se sastoji od načela upravnog
prava, koji bismo mogli nazvati
neformalizirani acquis u smislu da ne
postoji formalna konvencija.” Taj
neformalizirani acquis snažno pridonosi
europeizaciji nacionalnih uprava i
upravnog prava zemalja članica EU i
učvršćuje “europski administrativni
prostor” u nastajanju.