Constitutional Limits to the EU Agencies’ External Relations

Abstract

The present working paper traces the constitutional limits to the external action of EU agencies. The paper argues that these limits are a combination of the general constitutional limits on EU action, the institutional balance in EU external relations (as most recently clarified by the Court of Justice in Case C-660/13) and the specific limits to EU agency action (the Meroni doctrine and the Common Approach on decentralised agencies). The paper further finds that the EU legislature has devoted insufficient attention to these limits when defining the agencies' external powers in their establishing regulations. The paper identifies a possible way forward to ensure effective external action by EU agencies while respecting the relevant constitutional limits.

Keywords: Constitutional limits, EU agencies, external action, institutional balance