Comitology
- Budgetary Control Committee (Photo: Finnish EU Presidency website)
Name for the work and study of the many committees and working groups in the EU. The Commission had refused to present a complete overview of the working groups.
When Barroso became Commission president in 2004 he delivered to Danish MEP, Jens-Peter Bonde, a list of 3,094 different, until then secret, working groups in the Commission.
Comitology is normally used in a more narrow sense to define the various kinds of the 237 committees for advising and implementing EU law. But in a certain way, all the 3000 committees and working groups in the EU Commission advise on, and implement, EU law.
Since 1999 the formal committees have to report to the European Parliament with agendas and minutes. However, most working groups work without the full oversight of elected MPs and MEPs.
MEPs could not even get the lists of names of the participants. From 2009 the Commission has promised to establish a register of experts advising them in the many working groups.
Notes
- There are rules for advisory, regulatory and management committees, but not for the more informal working groups.
- There are also around 300 working groups in the Council deciding 85 % of all EU laws.
Links
Comitology http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/comitology_en.htm
See also
Committees of the EU Parliament
Bonde List
