Mar 2009 18

Death by Committee0

One of the legendary hallmarks of the EU is its committee system. But how many committees are there?

As of April 2008, there were 247 comitology committees helping the Commission draft legislation, made up of representatives from Member States who are technically competent.

There were, on the other hand, also 1193 "expert groups" to help the Commission draft laws and regulations. Members are co-opted from a raft of public and private interest groups and lobbies. Appointment to expert groups can include people present in a personal capacity, appointed after a public call for applications. This can’t be too public a procedure, however, as in thirteen years of monitoring EU paperwork I’ve never seen one. More often, nominees are made on insider terms and who you know.

There were 63 Social Dialogue committees. These committees provide a basis for reaching a consensus between big employers groups and big trades unions. It is a corporatist ideal.

There were also a certain number of special consultative entities, specifically four in the area of anti-trust and state aid, five in anti-dumping and anti-state aid, and two in economic and financial affairs.

Finally, there were 176 joint entities made up of national representatives. These groups operate under international agreements to oversee their implementation.

That makes a total of 1690 committees and working groups, beavering away behind the scenes at Brussels, coming up with proposals and legislative drafts out of sight of our elected representatives (let alone our responsible ministers). Yet we wonder why Brussels costs so much to run. It must be civil service Heaven and lobby group Valhalla rolled into one.

The beauty of the system emerges when controversial plans leak, and a newspaper runs with a story about some legislative hell about to be unleashed upon business and the workforce. The paperwork can vanish back into the bureaucratic swamp and Commission officials can deny any such proposals actually exist (formally at least).

The EU Constitution was meant to make the system more transparent and accountable. It does nothing for the comitology system, and proves yet another reason for taking the Treaty of Lisbon back to the drawing board.

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