The Role of Small States in the European Union by Baldur Þórhallsson

Author:Baldur Þórhallsson [Þórhallsson, Baldur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Security (National & International)
ISBN: 9781351882521
Google: qD9BDgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 34476135
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2000-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Participation of Member States in the Implementation Process in the Commission: The Routine Working Process

The committees formed by the Council to act within the Commission in implementing the EU decisions are the management committee and the regulatory committee.416 The administrations of the member states try to influence decisions of the Commission in these committees and in other committees or meetings which the Commission organises according to the Treaty.417 The Commission’s ability to steer management committees is weak as national governments have their own agenda. The management committees have limited decision-making capacity, and in the regulatory committees, the civil servants of member states have the power of veto over the executive actions of the Commission.418

Administrations work very closely with the Commission in committees which oversee implementation. In 1995, there were 271 committees419 which had responsibility for supervising the execution and administration of EU policies. The Commission was obligated to consult member states because of Council decisions in all these committees. Delegates from member states can block actions in these committees but it happens rarely. From May 1992 to May 1995, only six votes referred decisions back to the Council out of several hundred affirmative opinions made by several committees. The Commission chairs the committees. It also can dominate them in terms of substance as well as procedures. The Commission has been fairly successful in convincing member states to follow its ideas420 and it is, therefore, very important for administrations of member states to have good contact with officials of the Commission in these committees. National administrations have to be able to provide substantial data and information if they are going to be able to alter the implementation process or prevent a particular proposal from being implemented. Close contact with officials of the Commission is vital. The closeness of delegations of member states and officials from the Commission is obvious: ‘they tend to share responsibilities and combine forces… Here more than in other phases of the decision-making cycle, there has been an administrative fusion or merger of Community and national responsibilities in terms of procedural matters and even in terms of policy substance’.421

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