Abstract
This text deals with channels of communication, which were used by the EU judiciary to influence the development of the European integration, and with reasons for the respect for EU judicial activism from the member states and other EU institutions. This text covers the impact of individual procedural mechanisms (enforcement action, annulment action, preliminary rulings and action for damages) on the development of the European Union and the analysis of the reaction of member states, domestic judiciary and key EU institutions to the ECJ activism.
In the author's opinion, major reason behind the actual influence of the European Court of Justice activism is the combination of the treaty-based parameters of the ECJ (in particular mandatory jurisdiction and heterogeneity of subject involved in the procedures before ECJ), relative homogeneity of the legal environment in the EU member states and long-term strategy of the ECJ. The ECJ strategy is based on the gradual expansion of new doctrines formulated by the ECJ case-law (and "testing" of the reaction of other institutional actors in the EU) and frequent use of preliminary questions mechanism, which avoids direct confrontation with executive powers both in the member states and the EU.