Action for Failure to Act as a Legal Remedy – Control of EU Institutions

The article relates to a selected aspect of a competence control of institutions, bodies and organisational units of the European Union with regard to their obligations set forth in EU legal acts. The basic objective of this type of control is a complaint about a failure to act, laid down in Article 265 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Such a complaint may be made by both public law entities, i.e. member states and European institutions, as well as private entities – natural and legal persons. This legal protection measure is in fact a direct reflection of a complaint about an act to be void, laid down in Article 263 of the Treaty. The basic objective of the complaint is broadly understood control by the Court of Justice of the European Union relating to incorrect and incompliant with the law realisation of the mandate, while the complaint about inactivity aims to control the reasons for a failure to meet the obligations laid down in the EU law. The author discusses the position of complaint in the system of European Union’s legal protection measures, the admissibility making complaints and material and legal requirements that it should meet. The article presents, in the first place, the judicature of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the area, as well as the elements that are critical for a complaint to be considered.