Measures of management

Measures of management and administration: empowerment, sub-delegation and direct delegation

A category of measures to be distinguished from the decisions of principle are the so-called measures of management or administration ('mesures de gestion ou d'administration'). This category of measures includes measures which are

– of an investigatory or preparatory nature only, in view of a later final decision to be taken by the College, and/or

– leave the Commission no or only a limited margin of appreciation or discretion, and/or

– are routine matters, whose adoption by the College would entail a disproportionate demand on Commissioners' time.

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Measures of management or administration can be:

– delegated by the College of Commissioners to individual Commissioners who then adopt the measure under the so-called empowerment procedure ('procédure d'habilitation', Article 13(1) of the Rules of Procedure); empowerments are either “general” (a Commissioner is empowered to adopt a given category of acts) or “ad hoc” (a Commissioner is empowered to adopt a specific act in a specific case);

– sub-delegated, by a so empowered Commissioner to a Director-General or Head of Service who then adopts the measures under the sub-delegation procedure (Article 13(3) of the Rules of Procedure); or

– exceptionally delegated directly by the College to Directors General or Heads of Service (e.g. Competition Hearing Officers) (direct delegation, Article 14 of the Rules of Procedure).

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It follows from the principle of collegiality that before adopting a measure under the empowerment, sub-delegation or delegation procedure the empowered Commissioner, Director- General or Head of Service must always determine whether, on grounds of political sensitivity or because of its importance the matter must be brought before the full College (point 13/14-3.2 of the joint Rules giving effect to Articles 13 and 14 of the Rules of Procedure). Moreover, since empowerment / sub-delegations / delegations are exceptions to the general principle of collegiality, they must be construed narrowly (in principle, there is no “implicit” empowerment or empowerment “by analogy”).

Resources

References

Information about Measures of management in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Measures of management

Measures of management