Torbjörn Larsson

The Role of Committees in the Policy-Process of the European Union

The Role of Committees in the Policy-Process of the European Union. Legislation, Implementation and Deliberation

Unpacking international organisations

List of figures List of tables List of authors Foreword 1. The bureaucracy of international organisations 2. On the principles of organisation of international bureaucracies Section I 3. The European Commission 4. The OECD Secretariat 5. The WTO Secretariat Section II 6. Departmental dynamics in international bureaucracies 7. Supranational dynamics in international bureaucracies 8. Epistemic dynamics in international bureaucracies 9. Intergovernmental dynamics in international bureaucracies Conclusions 10. Complexity and stability in international bureaucracies References Appendix Index

Introduction: The Role of Committees in the Policy-Process of the European Union

This volume seeks to illuminate an aspect of European integration that is omnipresent yet frequently overlooked. It concerns, almost by defi nition, the ‘low politics’ of the European Union since it deals with the plethora of committees that prepare, shape, and implement the decisions that are taken by the European institutions. The attention of the media and the public, and largely also of the academic community, tends to focus on the political fora in which decisions are taken – the European Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament. And while these institutions indeed are formally responsible for EU policy-making, and as such accountable to the public, looking at them often reveals only a small part of the story. The political level represented by these institutions is the tip of the iceberg of European governance. Submerged below the water-line is a much larger body of administrative interaction, which to a signifi cant degree involves the work of committees. Indeed there are so many committees, with such variation in powers, membership and procedures that it is diffi cult even for the initiated to fi nd their way through this jungle. Of course, part of the problem lies in the ubiquity of the term ‘committee’, which is used to describe many different kinds of collective meetings in which aspects of EU policymaking are discussed. But beyond the inherent problem of the infl ationary usage of ‘committee’, the potential for confusion is heightened by the particular nature of institutional arrangements in the EU. Committees are present in all stages of the policy-process, from expert groups advising the Commission in the pre-proposal stage, via Council working parties and EP committees in legislative decision-making, to the so-called comitology committees working with the Commission in the policy-implementation phase. In addition, the EU Treaty’s pillar structure introduces further differentiation, with committees in the area of the Common Foreign and