Opinion (EU)
Opinions are legal acts of the European Union and as such are part of the Union's secondary law . Opinions are given by the institutions and bodies of the Union in the cases specified in the Treaties. They are defined in Art. 288 TFEU as non-legally binding legal acts, although their submission has legal consequences.
For example, legal acts which, according to the Treaties, are to be adopted “after an institution has given its opinion” cannot be enacted if such an opinion is not available. According to the case law of the European Court of Justice , however, this does not represent a hidden veto option, since the submission of an opinion cannot be refused within a reasonable period of time. In some cases, it is also provided that, after a period has expired, proceedings can also be initiated or continued if the statement has not been submitted within a certain period.
Below are two important areas in which comments are provided.
Opinions in the procedure for the adoption of legal acts
An important area in which opinions are provided is in the course of the legislative process, particularly in the legislative process.
In the area of legislative procedures, the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee are particularly involved by issuing opinions in the legislative procedure. In those cases in which legislative acts can also be passed without the consent of the European Parliament , the latter has the right to comment.
Other organs, such as the European Central Bank , are only entitled to comment within the scope of their respective sphere of activity.
In addition to the formal right to comment, there is of course the option of expressing an informal position. In contrast to an informal opinion, the officially adopted opinions are published in the Official Journal of the European Union ; furthermore, the preamble of the respective legal act expressly refers to the opinions that are obtained.
Infringement Procedure
In Art. 258 TFEU provides that the Commission has to issue a reasoned opinion after consulting the relevant Member State when its European law obligations does not comply, in their opinion of the Member State. Only if the Member State does not comply with the Commission's requests within the time limit it has set can the Commission bring an action before the European Court of Justice .
A similar procedure is also provided if a member state wants to prosecute another member state for a breach of the obligations under European law: According to Art. 259 TFEU , the Commission must also issue a reasoned opinion in this case. If the Commission does not give its opinion within three months, the Member State that has appealed to the Commission can bring an action to the European Court of Justice.
