The rise and fall of the EU Pilot – an instrument for cooperation and dialogue

The aim of this article is to answer the question: why the EU Pilot (the European Commission's platform for eliminating infringements of EU law and preceding the procedure under Article 258 TFEU) has been reduced year by year by 77% fewer newly opened cases, while its effectiveness has remained consistently above 70%? By means of an analysis of relevant documents and a quantitative study of statistical data, the author of the article considers the issues of the platform's effectiveness, its presumed nature, the timeliness of responses, as well as the Commission's new policy towards infringements of states and the results of the European Ombudsman's inquiries into cases concerning the Commission's use of the platform EU Pilot.