Page 18 - Demo

System of legal protection in the EUEvery legal system requires that the rights of citizens or other entities arerespected. The guarantor of compliance with European law is the Court ofJustice of the EU (CoJ), which, together with the courts of the Member States,creates a single judicial system. The CoJ has the highest and only judicialauthority in matters of European law. It ensures that the law is observed in theinterpretation and application of the Treaties (Art. 19 of the TFEU). Thisformulation includes three types of tasks:%u25aa control of the application of European law by EU institutions,Member States and individuals,%u25aa interpretation of European law and%u25aa development of European law (Borchardt, 2011).The CoJ either rules on direct actions or it gives preliminary rulings. In fulfillingits tasks, it closely cooperates with national courts. National courts are alsoobliged to ensure effective legal protection in the EU. The direct actions of theCoJ include, for example, actions brought against a Member State that has failedto fulfil an obligation under EU law (Articles 258 to 260 of the TFEU). An exampleof such a failure would be the non-implementation or incorrect implementationof a directive into national law. An action can be brought before the CoJ by theCommission or another Member State, but not by individuals or businesses.They can, however, send complaints to the Commission on the basis of whichthe Commission can start an investigation. Citizens also can turn to nationalcourts in the event of a violation by other citizens or businesses of their rightsarising from EU law. If their rights under EU law have been violated by publicauthorities in an EU country other than their own, they can turn to SOLVIT, a freeonline mediation network established by the Commission to help citizens andbusinesses solve administrative problems related to their rights as EU citizens.Preliminary rulings of the CoJ are important from the point of view of theuniform interpretation and application of European law. The preliminary rulingprocedure presupposes the existence of a procedure before a national court.In the case of ambiguities in the interpretation or validity of EU legal acts, thenational court may stay the proceedings and submit a preliminary question tothe CoJ. The CoJ does not decide on a specific case before the national court,it focuses exclusively on the interpretation of a provision of European law thatshould be applied by the national court. The national court consequently appliesEuropean law in the dispute and decides the matter. The rulings of the CoJ arebinding on a referring national court and all courts hearing the same case, and,as already mentioned, they are important for the interpretation of European lawin other, similar subsequent cases as well.181 Citizen Commitment