EU Shared Administration and the Role of the Boards of Appeal

The EU administration has specialized over the last couple of decades by the introduction of EU agencies in specific policy fields. Currently, 10 out of the 38 agencies have a Board of Appeal with a mandatory preliminary nature. While the Commission has stressed the necessity of BoAs within internal structures of decision-making agencies, there is a lack of guidance on how they should operate exactly and in how far this mechanism of control is effective. Independence, effectiveness and expertise are the key features of these Boards. One may argue that the added, and perhaps most essential, value of the BoAs is the possibility of a specialized review in which technical and legal expertise is combined, which can help to counterbalance the limits that the EU courts face when dealing with the highly technical decisions of the agencies. Because of the institutional balance within the EU, the EU Courts apply a limited standard of review in this regard. This means that they can only address questions of legality regarding the content of the contested decision, leaving a margin of appreciation to the agencies. This article aims at offering a comparative analysis for all BoAs structures, their key decisions and legal similarities and differences to answer the question if this is indeed an effective mechanism of control and in how far it may or may not assist the judicial review mechanism of control.