Silence of the EU authorities: the legal consequences of inaction by the EU administration

This chapter addresses administrative silence as regulated by the rules applicable to the eu own administration, notably the european commission and eu agencies, but also other institutions in an administrative role. The eu administrative law lacks a general codification on procedures, and therefore, sectoral legislation and internal commission guidelines play a crucial role. In order to present the heterogeneous and wide-ranging sectoral laws in a comprehensive and systematic way, five representative pillars are examined: (1) market regulation; (2) risk regulation; (3) funding of private or public entities; (4) responses to requests for access to documents; and (5) civil service law. On the basis of this categorization, it is demonstrated that the legal framework and the responses to administrative silence differ depending on the particularities of each pillar. The potential risks for the public interest or budget consequences determine whether administrative silence is transformed into a positive or negative act.keywordseuropean commissionmarket regulationrisk regulationfunding applicationsaccess to documentscivil service