Authorities: reconsideration of (non-)enforcement decisions must lead to an effective result

Authorities: reconsideration of (non-)enforcement decisions must lead to an effective result 768 426 SarisLaw

In his opinion of 11 March 202, advocate general Wattel states that when an administrative authority is reconsidered whether it must (still) take enforcement action by imposing remedial sanctions, it must assess whether effective enforcement and proportionate sanctions can be achieved. The administrative authority must include all relevant facts, circumstances and developments in its assessment. To be able to impose a reinstatement sanction, the administrative authority must establish whether there has been a previous violation, whereby there is a chance of recidivism or whereby the undesirable consequences persist and can be eliminated. When answering the question whether the risk of recidivism justifies a re-sanction, various circumstances, such as the time that has passed since the violation, should be taken into account. The Administrative Jurisdiction Division ruled in this case on 28 October 2020. For a discussion of this judgment, we refer to our blog post ‘How should an administrative authority reconsider a decision in objection proceedings? Administrative Jurisdiction Division formulates test framework for reconsideration of (non-)enforcement decisions.’

The full blog post is written in Dutch.

Date: 12 August 2020
ECLI: ECLI:NL:RVS:2020:738
Author: Christien Saris