European Commission

The European Commission is a truly distinguishable EU institution with a plethora of special direct enforcement powers vis-à-vis the Member States and private entities. Traditionally, much academic attention has been paid to the infringement procedure (Articles 258-260 of the TFEU) which is seen as the central mechanism that ought to guarantee that the Member States comply with EU law and the enforcement powers of the Commission in the field of anti-trust. However, the last decades have witnessed a progressive development of other enforcement instruments such as compliance promoting tools based on dialogue across different policy fields. Despite the crucial role played by the Commission as the guardian of the treaties and enforcer of EU law, there is limited research that looks in a more generic way at the different and, at the same time, diversified powers and tools used by the Commission in order to ensure that EU law is observed and complied with. Therefore, it is the very aim of the present chapter to provide a helicopter view on the evolving role of the Commission as direct enforcer of EU law.