2449-7797 The Duty to Give Reasons in the European Legal Area: a Mechanism for Transparent and Accountable Administrative Decision-Making? A Comparison of Belgian, Dutch, French and EU Administrative Law Obowiązek uzasadniania decyzji administracyjnych jako instrument przejrzystego i rozliczalnego procesu decyzyjnego w administracji? Analiza porównawcza zapisów prawa administracyjnego belgijskiego, holenderskiego, francuskiego oraz Unii Europejskiej Opdebeek Ingrid author De Somer Stéphanie author University of Antwerp, Belgium Correspondence to: Ingrid Opdebeek Correspondence to: Stéphanie De Somer 12 10 2016 2016 (2) 2016 97 148 Copyright © 2016 2016 <p>The duty to give reasons is generally thought of as an indispensable procedural guarantee that is offered to citizens in all modern European administrative law systems. The comparative analysis carried out in this article, however, reveals that important differences continue to exist between the way in which various legal systems within Europe conceive of that duty. The article furthermore argues that the duty to give reasons has an important role to play in the furtherance of transparency and accountability as principles of good governance. However, it also has its limitations as an instrument for keeping the administration accountable. Up until today, the duty to give reasons primarily has a role to play in the relationship between the administration and those individuals that are subject to its specific (mostly individual) decisions. 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