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 of the Commission.

The word comitology is normally used in a more narrow sense to define the various categories of committees involved in advising on and implementing EU law. But in one way or another all the 3000 or so committees and working groups attached to or dependent on the EU Commission are involved in this.

Since 1999 the formal committees have to report to the European Parliament with agendas and minutes. However, most working groups carry out their activity without the full oversight of elected MPs and MEPs.

MEPs could not even get the list 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.

- In 2008 2,125 decisions were taken by the Commission in comitology procedures, in 2007 the figure was 2,522 and in 2006 it was 2,901

- In 2008 seven draft decisions were submitted to the Council because there was a qualified majority in the relevant committee against the proposal from the Commission. There there 17 such cases in 2007 and only five in 2006

- 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

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