The book investigates the principle of collegiality in the European Commission. Collegiality is a principle of primary law enshrined in the Treaties and recognised by the Court of Justice of the EU. It ensures the Commission’s independence from EU Member States and it acts as a safeguard to the Commission’s supranational character. Under the principle of collegiality, all commissioners are equal in the adoption of decisions and they bear collective responsibility for these decisions. The book approaches collegiality from an innovative pluri-disciplinary and law-in-context perspective, which looks at both the legal framework and the institutional practice. The first part of the book is devoted to the legal analysis of collegiality. It retraces collegial procedures and actors in the different layers of the Commission’s decision-making. The second part of the book explores the implementation of collegiality through illustrative case studies on different Commission’s functions, including legislative initiative, executive rule-making, infringement proceedings, competition, and economic governance. The empirical analysis unveils a disconnect between the legal notion of collegiality and its concrete application in institutional practices. Formally, the college of commissioners adopts all decisions. Behind the scenes, however, collegiality is implemented with different intensities and in different manners depending on the functions performed by the Commission. These variations raise the normative question of how to ensure the unity of the Commission as a collegial body despite the diversification of decision-making functions. They also invite a re-examination of the Commission’s multifaceted role in the current EU institutional, legal, and political setting.
About the speaker:
Maria Patrin is a postdoctoral researcher at the Università degli Studi di Firenze Unifi. Maria has been Research Associate at the Academy of European Law and at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the EUI. She obtained her PhD at the European University Institute in 2020. She holds a M.A. of the College of Europe and worked in private practice in Brussels prior to her academic career.