Soft Law and its Importance in Ensuring Member States' Compliance with Union Law

Abstract

Soft law and its role in the enforcement of EU law: Apart from the Treaty infringement procedure there are more and more procedures, mostly laid down in secondary law, by which the EU – often using soft law – ensures Member States’ compliance with EU law. This development entails a considerable transforming power. It deserves not only a foundational, mainly competence-oriented analysis of EU soft law, but also a systemic and legal account of these procedures in which it is often EU agencies – instead of the Commission and the European Court of Justice, as provided for in the TFEU – which, largely beyond public attention, interpret EU law and, on this basis, try to enforce it vis-à-vis the Member States.