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Hofmann, Herwig C.H. --- "European regulatory union? The role of agencies and standards" [2017] ELECD 283; in Koutrakos, Panos; Snell, Jukka (eds), "Research Handbook on the Law of the EU’s Internal Market" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 460

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Law of the EU’s Internal Market

Editor(s): Koutrakos, Panos; Snell, Jukka

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783478095

Section: Chapter 20

Section Title: European regulatory union? The role of agencies and standards

Author(s): Hofmann, Herwig C.H.

Number of pages: 17

Abstract/Description:

The past decades of evolution of the EU’s legal and political framework have considerably influenced the EU’s internal market and the evolution of the internal market has equally had considerable influence on the institutional structure of the Union. With diversification of the Union’s policies and policy objectives and the deepening of its integration, the Union has moved from an organisation which was initially primarily seen to be engaged in regulatory activity akin to (quasi-) legislative action, towards an organisation increasingly active also in the field of the administrative implementation of Union law. The central phenomenon which will be at the centre of attention in this short look at changes in regulatory structures of the Union is the great diversification and pluralisation of executive bodies on the European level, which has taken place in order to be able to address the requirements of deepening integration in various policy fields. This development is frequently discussed in the context of an important change in the EU’s institutional landscape described as ‘agencification’. The result is that next to the Commission, and to a lesser degree the Council and the ECB, now a great diversity of ‘offices, bodies and agencies’ exercise administrative functions in the EU. These institutional developments have influenced and continue to influence the evolution of the exercise of regulatory powers in the Union. They have transformed the very nature of the Union not least by the way of setting norms and standards for the internal market.