Seminar on the review of ESAs’ acts by the Court of Justice of the European Union and by the Board of Appeal

To view the program of the event, click here.

To register, please send an email to registration@mpi.lu indicating your full name and affiliation or call Martina Winkel at +352 269488 923.


Judicial review of decisions taken by European Agencies is a key accountability tool which contributes to justifying the creation of independent bodies entrusted with administrative and, increasingly, quasi-regulatory powers. After the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union not only explicitly envisages judicial review of European Agencies’ act, thus removing every residual restriction, but it also sets the (primary) legislative framework for preliminary review of legality by administrative bodies (Art. 263(5)).

In this context, the founding Regulations of the European Financial Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) confer on the Board of Appeal – a joint body of the three Authorities – the power to review the legality of the acts adopted by the ESAs. The seminar will offer the opportunity to examine the features of such review, including its rules of procedure, the scope of decisions subject to control, and the intensity of scrutiny when technical discretion is involved. The recently published first decision by the Board of Appeal, in the case SV Capital OÜ v EBA, will also give the chance for a preliminary assessment of the Board’s functioning.

Furthermore, the interaction between judicial review by the Court of Justice and quasi-judicial review by the Board of Appeal offers a fruitful perspective for a comparison of the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two models of scrutiny, and can provide indication of the most effective design for quasi-judicial bodies that are likely to be an increasingly common device for future European Agencies.

The seminar will gather scholars, representatives of the European Institutions, and practitioners from all over Europe, including members of the Board of Appeal who will report on their experience after the first period of the Board’s activity.

The conference will be hosted on 25 September 2013, from 9:00 to 13:00, at the Institute in 4, rue Alphonse Weicker, L-2721 Luxembourg.