Comitology: Problem Solved or Dispute Postponed?

In this paper, Thomas Christiansen and Beatrice Vaccari, senior lecturers at the European Institute of Public Administration, examine the Council’s 2006 decision on Comitology reform and the impact it has had on the comitology process.  

The authors begin by noting that the issue of parliamentary scrutiny of comitology – the system of implementation committees that control the Commission in the execution of delegated powers – has been contested for some time by the political forces involved. 

The European Parliament in particular has become increasingly dissatisfied with the exclusive arrangement for member state representatives controlling the Commission, according to the authors. However, because of the changes to the legislative process brought about by co-decision, the EP has demanded greater involvement in the process. 

The Comitology Decisions of 1987 and 1999, and the inter-institutional agreements that have been concluded around them, addressed these concerns in various ways, the authors say, but they appear not to have settled the matter conclusively. Hence, the continued pressure for reform that led to a Council Decision in the summer of 2006 amending the 1999 Decision. 

This article seeks to illuminate how this Decision has come about, provides the details of its main provisions and assesses the extent to which this most recent reform of the system can be seen as a solution to a problem that has dogged comitology for the past decade.