5 - The Commission Legal Service

Summary

Chapter 5 commences with a discussion of the centrality of law in Commission decision-making. Law has served as a guarantee of the Commission’s objectivity and ability to stand for the common European interest. The Commission Legal Service has traditionally possessed a strong institutional position. Its legal advisers are involved in legislative and executive decision-making ranging from early plans for action to its implementation in Member States. In its work, the Legal Service reaches beyond law-making. It affects policy-making and executive actions on a broad scale, and actively influences the development of EU law through its participation in litigation. It is the ultimate ‘repeat player’ and has a special relationship with the European Court of Justice. The chapter also tracks the recent transformation of the Commission’s institutional self-identity, from a mostly technical body and guardian of the Treaties to an overtly political institution with a strong political agenda, and discusses its implications for the work of legal advisers and the status of the law in the Commission more generally.