A Legal and Political Interpretation of Article 215

Article 215(2) [new Article 288(2)EC] introduces the right of individuals to seek compensation for damages caused to them by wrongful acts or omissions of EU institutions. This provision has been interpreted to give rise to concurrent liability between EU institutions and Member States for damages caused to individuals in, amongst others, cases of breaches of EC law. The authors argue that the post-Francovich ECJ case law on state liability allows this legal provision to be used as the legal basis for an action for damages against Member States which violate EC law and the Commission for its failure to fulfil the supervisory task entrusted to it by Article 155 [new Article 211]. The concurrent liability scenario raises theoretical questions about the position of the individual in EC law and about the supranational versus statecentric integration dialectic. Can this scenario be used as a springboard for the ECJ to offer the individual citizen of the Union a chance to finally fight back?Helen Xanthaki is the author of 'A Legal and Political Interpretation of Article 215' with ISBN 9781840144284 and ISBN 1840144289.