Rapid Alert Systems as Mechanisms of Mutual Administrative Assistance

• Author: Micaela Lottini
• Position: Ricercatore di Diritto amministrativo nell'Università degli studi di Roma Tre
• Pages: 103-115

103

Studi sull’integrazione europea, IX (2014), pp. 103-115

Micaela Lottini*

Rapid Alert Systems

as Mechanisms of Mutual

Administrative Assistance

S: 1. Introduction. – 2. The alert mechanisms: some examples. – 3. The alert mecha-

nisms: differences and similarities. – 4. The alert mechanisms: legal issues and the decisions

of the General Court. – 5. Alert mechanisms and the IMI network: the Services Directive. –

6. Principles and criteria for sending an alert. – 7. Alert mechanisms and the IMI network: the

Proposal for a Directive amending Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional

qualifications. – 8. Principles and criteria for sending an alert. – 9. Rights of the professionals

and the protection of personal data. – 10. The nature of alerts and retention periods.

1. The alert systems provided for in various European Regulations are an

arrangement of administrative cooperation, which enables a rapid exchange of

information between member States and the Commission about products, activities

and situations which are potentially dangerous, especially, for human health and

the environment1. Alert systems are a particular form of mutual assistance between

different administrations, which are, in fact, linked in a network and are bound by

formalised duties to inform without prior request2.

The alert systems set up over the last few years are various, and have some com-

mon features and common legal problems, the indication of which is the object of the

first paragraph of this article. The second part of the article deals, more specifically,

with two alert mechanisms. Firstly, the one provided by the Services Directive3 and,

secondly, the one provided by the Proposal4 for amending Directive 2005/36/EC

on the recognition of professional qualifications. These two mechanisms are of a

particular interest, in our opinion, because they are implemented trough another net-

* Ricercatore di Diritto amministrativo nell’Università degli studi di Roma Tre.

1 See Commission staff working document, Administrative cooperation in the single market, of 29

June 2009, SEC(2009)882 nal.

2 See, on these issues, H. C. H. H, Composite Decision Making Procedures in EU Admin-

istrative Law, in H. C. H. H, A. H. T (eds.), Legal Challenges in EU Administrative Law,

Cheltenham, 2009, p. 143.

3 Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 12 December 2006, on

Services in the internal market, OJEU L 376, 27 December 2006.

4 European Commission, Proposal for amending Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of pro-

fessional qualications and Regulation on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market In-

formation System, COM(2011)883 nal.