EU-DOMSTOLEN OCH PRIVATA AKTÖRER - Analys av EU-Domstolens dömande i begäran om förhandsavgörande

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse whether the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) tends to rule in favour of a certain type of private actor in cases against public actors brought to the Court via the preliminary ruling mechanism. The role played by the CJEU in European integration is debated by scholars defending two different integration theories. On the one hand, neofunctionalism argues that the CJEU pushes European integration in a direction not necessarily supported by Member States. This theory has given rise to the concept that transnational exchanges play a key role in the development of European integration. On the other hand, intergovernmentalism defends the idea that the European integration pushed by the CJEU corresponds to the will of the Member States. The method used for this study is a multivariate regression analysis, which includes cases brought to the CJEU via the preliminary ruling mechanism from the years 1997-2008. They were individually assessed to classify them according to what type of parties were involved. The analysis measured the extent to which the CJEU tended to rule in favour of, or against, plaintiffs that were private actors in cases against public actors. After this analysis we came to the conclusion that there were no signs of the CJEU ruling more often in favour of one type of private actor than others. However, we could conclude that companies appeared more often before the CJEU than other private actors, which in turn could indicate that company interests play a more significant role in European integration than the interests of other private actors. Finally, the analysis also revealed the weight that the European Commission holds by supporting, or not, the position of a private actor in preliminary ruling procedure.