Controlling Comitology Accountability in a Multi-Level System

by Brandsma, Gijs Jan

• ISBN13: 9781137319630
• ISBN10: 1137319631
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781137319647
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-08-08
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• More Book Details
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Summary

Comitology is the most important form of multi-level governance in the European Union. Member State and Commission actors together create roughly 2,500 executive acts per year, amounting to about half of all European laws together. But to what degree is this unknown and invisible committee system being held to account for its decisions?
This book for the first time addresses accountability in truly multi-level terms. It looks at accountability foreseen in the constitutional setup of the comitology system, as well as at how this plays out in practice at the European level and within national governments. Controlling Comitology combines findings from different levels of government, and analyses a plurality of data sources including interviews, survey data of committee participants and their superiors, legislative databases and meeting documents. The book argues that accountability has steadily improved over time, but also that unexpected gaps have emerged. This books is important reading for student and scholars of comitology as well as accountability and law-making in the European Union.

Author Biography

Gijs Jan Brandsma is Assistant Professor at the School of Governance at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His articles have appeared in Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of European Public Policy, European Law Journal, Public Administration, International Review of Administrative Sciences, and others.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
Preface and Acknowledgements
1. Hidden Power
2. Comitology: The System, the Committees and their Participants
3. Accountability and Multi-Level Governance
4. System Level Accountability: Conflict over Control
5. Committee Level Accountability: System meets Practice
6. Participant Level Accountability: Substantive Talks and Deafening Silence
7. Comitology and Multi-Level Accountability
Notes
Literature
Index