The application of national law by the European central bank within the EU banking union’s single supervisory mechanism : a new mode of European integration?

Abstract

The Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) contains a new and unprecedented feature in EU law: its founding regulation enables a European institution (the ECB) to directly apply national law. This paper examines the theoretical and practical implications of this feature of the SSM through the lens of European integration. It highlights the ways in which the ECB may harmonize national laws, why harmonized administrative procedural rules are necessary in this field and what remedies would be available should a decision of a European institution taken on the basis of national law be challenged before the CJEU. The paper concludes that the SSM may be described as a hybrid mode of European integration since it departs from the traditional models of the execution of EU law, and challenges some of the founding principles of EU law, such as the autonomy of the EU legal order and the principle of non-discrimination.