Principle of good administration

This chapter discusses the principle of good administration as the best example of general principles of EU law applicable to national fining proceedings that supplement the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The right to good administration guaranteed by Article 41 of the Charter applies only to European institutions. Therefore, this chapter is devoted to analyzing the subjective rights that stem from the general principle of good administration, which is also applicable to national proceedings. This chapter covers a variety of obligations of national administrative authorities, such as ensuring procedural fairness and impartiality, the right to be heard, access to case files and to a reasoned decision. It shows that a failure to observe procedural rights under EU general principles has a limited effect on the validity of a fining decision.