Specific sanctions of European urban planning Law

ABSTRACT The competences of the European Union in matters of urban planning are, if not extremely limited, at least diffuse, and most certainly indirect. Without being expressly mentioned within the contents of the Treatises, they are revealed in other field of competence of the European structures, such as environmental protection or the economic, social, and territorial cohesion policies. Moreover, aspects relevant to sustainable development, more precisely the sustainable development of the territory of the EU, includes important aspects of urban planning law. Regarding sanctions, they usually are, and remain, in the exclusive competence of the national legal systems. However, we can identify, within the European regulations in this field (for instance, directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability or recommendation no. 2001/331/EC), certain minimal legality criteria for the given domain, beyond which, in theory, we must find ourselves in he troubled area of (urban planning) unlawfulness. An important part is played, under these circumstances, by the case law of the European Court for Human Rights that has many a time stated on the conformity of the sanctions specific to urban planning law, to the contents of the European Convention of Human Rights.