The Concept of “Authority” and Procedural Principles in the Administrative Procedural Law of the European Union

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The question of a uniform European administrative (procedural) law has recently entered centre stage in the legal scholarship and gradually in the EU policy-making. As an element of this discourse, the paper analyses the concept of ‘authority’ (a basic concept of the European administrative law) from three aspects: The fi rst question is whether ‘administrative authority’ has a sui generis definition in EU law and what its characteristic features are. Second, the exercise of ‘public authority’ will be described, especially the forms of cooperation between authorities. Third, the concept of ‘authority’ will be examined as a set of principles governing the exercise of public powers in the administrative procedures, with the help of primary and secondary sources of EU law and some non-binding documents. The interpretation of the principles is possible on the basis of the case-law of ECJ. In the fi nal part of the paper, the practical appearance of the principles will be outlined with the help of the recently published ReNEUAL Model Rules. Using these techniques a general overview will be set out concerning the concept of ‘authority’ in EU administrative law.