Jean Monnet Seminar 2017

Workshop: Interpretation and application of EU law by national public administration bodies

Part of the Seminar entitled European Union Law in the Decisions of the Member States’ Constitutional and Administrative Courts and Public Administration, the workshop was held in the Professor Wincenty Danek Auditorium of the Pedagogical University of Cracow on 19 October 2017. It focused on the interpretation and application of EU law by national public administration bodies.

The participants were public administration staff (seven persons representing Cracow Municipality Office, Małopolska Provincial Office in Krakow and the Energy Regulatory Office), research and teaching staff (ten persons) as well as 18 students.

Workshop delivery was based on the case study method. The leader Dr Monika Skowrońska had prepared nine cases of varying difficulty concerning various practical aspects (problems) related to the subject matter of the workshop as well as excerpts from Polish and EU legal acts and jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU (received by the participants in advance). By way of introduction, Dr Skowrońska made a concise presentation of the sources of EU legislation, features of individual types of EU legal acts as well as the contents and boundaries of the principles of the priority and direct effectiveness of EU law and the obligation to interpret national legislation in a pro-EU manner. The main part of the workshop pertained to analysing individual cases: the participants responded to question related to them; they were also a starting point for a number of exchanges involving many of the attendees and concerning various practical aspects of EU law application by national public administration bodies. The workshop participants (both public administration staff/research and teaching staff and the students) showed their considerable involvement and interest in the subject matter as well as the ability to link the provisions and principles of EU law to various circumstances and critically analyse relevant regulation and jurisprudence related to that legislation.