Europeans have a fundamental right to “good administration” (Yay!) But what about Germany?
3d 16h ago by belgae.social/u/autonomousPunk in humanrights@crazypeople.online
Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFREU) entitles people to “good administration”. What does that mean exactly -- you might ask. It is up to every administration to define what that means. The EU has their own “European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour” but that is just for EU agencies (i.e. excluding member states).
Belgium has a standards of good administrative behaviour just for Belgian administrations at the federal level.
I see that Germany answered a survey about good administration. It’a a good sign. But what do they have? A German agency ignored my request for standards of good administration that they are expected to adhere to. Ignoring that request in itself likely undermines the right to good administration.
So, my question: can anyone point to a code of good administrative conduct for German administrations? Preferably in English if it exists but of course I would be satisfied with German if needed.
Thanks! IIUC (from a machine translation), there is no code of “good administrative” conduct for Germany:
Administrative Procedure Act (VwVfG) § 10 Non-formal nature of the administrative procedure The administrative procedure is not bound to specific forms unless there are special legal provisions for the form of the procedure. It is simple, practical and quick to carry out.
It is up to every administration to determine what that means
In other words, it's total nonsense
I wouldn’t go that far. I mean, it’s not great that they have the liberty of writing a vague or minimal standard for themselves. But at least you can hold them to their own standard. And in situations where there is no standard in place, you can argue that your CFREU Art.41 rights are generally undermined.
A good judge would treat an unwritten standard in favor of the complainant. There is a legal concept in contract law that says the benefit of vague or ambiguous terms in a contract goes to the party who did not draft the contract. This principle punishes the side who had the advantage of writing the contract for their negligence. Hopefully a similar concept would be considered in the case of good administration. Not sure if this principle exists in Europe or how realistic that is.
I have encountered several cases where a Belgian administrative office violated the Belgian standards. In principle I can escalate a complaint on that basis. I would not consider this useless.