Composite Procedures: The Maturation of a Cross-Jurisdictional Phenomenon

Over the past two decades, composite administrative procedures have emerged from the margins into the mainstream of European administrative law. Despite their increasing occurrence in EU legislation and the case law of the CJEU, and the growing attention of the scholarship, there is surprisingly little reflection and discussion on the definition of composite procedures and the conceptual choices they entail. This ambiguity impedes the academic discourse and the regulation and adjudication of composite procedures. This contribution proposes a definition and conceptualisation of composite administrative procedures with cross-jurisdictionality and administrative unity as their central characteristics. It emphasises the need to distinguish composite administrative procedures from, first, purely national and purely EU administrative procedures and, second, other forms of cooperation and interaction between the EU and national administrations. To this end, the contribution proposes three cumulative criteria for qualifying a composite administrative procedure: single-case decision-making, formalisation and non-strict decisional interdependence. However, the proposed definition and conceptualisation is only the start of a much-needed comparative law discussion, as the unique cross-jurisdictional nature of composite administrative procedures requires them to be conceptually compatible with how administrative procedures are understood in the Member States.