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

While the European Commission, the Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament are formally responsible for policy-making in the United States, a much larger body of administrative interaction exists that involves the work of advisory, legislative, and implementation committees present at all stages of the policy process. Christiansen (European Institute of Public Administration, the Netherlands) and Larsson (Stockholm U., Sweden) present 10 papers that provide normative and empirical analysis of the roles played by these committees in the EU policy process. Key questions addressed by the papers include the nature of the interactions between committee participants (deliberation versus strategic bargaining), the degree to which committees either contribute to or detract form the formalization of EU decision-making and; the impact of committee interventions and public perceptions of technocracy on the legitimacy of the European Union and its institutions.