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Rowe, Gerard C. --- "Administrative Supervision of Administrative Action in the European Union" [2009] ELECD 350; in Hofmann, C.H. Herwig; Türk, H. Alexander (eds), "Legal Challenges in EU Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Legal Challenges in EU Administrative Law

Editor(s): Hofmann, C.H. Herwig; Türk, H. Alexander

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847207883

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Administrative Supervision of Administrative Action in the European Union

Author(s): Rowe, Gerard C.

Number of pages: 39

Extract:

8. Administrative supervision of
administrative action in the
European Union
Gerard C. Rowe1

A. INTRODUCTION

Generally considered, the legal and institutional supervision of administra-
tive action is mandated by at least the principles of the rule of law and of good
administration. As to the first, a key purpose of such supervision lies in giving
specific substance to the rule of law.2 As the EU is a community under law
(see further below), administrative supervision there can generally be credited
with this function. The principles of the separation of powers (derived from
the rule of law) and of the sovereignty of parliament (derived from both the
rule of law and the democracy principle) also point clearly in the direction of
a need for supervisory control over the public administration. Though these
two elements are not fully developed in the EU, they still have a substantial
foothold in the more or less balanced distribution of powers among a number
of organs (thus avoiding a dangerous concentration of powers in the hands of
any single institution) and in the basic sovereignty of the legislative machin-
ery (thus ensuring the ultimate subordination of administrative actors and
the elemental role of the courts subject to legislative precept).
If only indirectly, supervision of the administration can also be seen as
consequent upon the principle of democracy not only as regards the com-
pletion and implementation of democratically established decisions and
policies but also as regards the legitimation of action taken by the public
administration. ...