Controlling delegated powers in the post-Lisbon European Union

Gijs Jan Brandsma*, Jens Blom-Hansen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Most European Union rules are made by the Commission, not the Council of Ministers or the European Parliament. But although the Commission is an important rule-maker, it is not autonomous. The member states have always taken care to install committees to control the Commission (comitology). However, the Lisbon Treaty introduced alternative control mechanisms (delegated acts) and a reform of the comitology system (implementing acts). This article investigates how the post-Lisbon control system works in daily legislative practice. It represents the first investigation of the institutional preferences of the Council, the Parliament and the Commission in the new system. Further, it utilizes better data than previous studies. The analysis is based on data on the control preferences of all actors before the first trilogue meeting for a large number of cases in the period 2010–13. The results indicate that the institutional battle over the control of delegated rule-making is far from over.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)531-549
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of European Public Policy
Volume23
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Apr 2016

Keywords

  • Comitology
  • delegated acts
  • delegation
  • legislative control
  • legislative politics

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