Commission lacks ‘reliable overview’ on outside advice

Date: 17/04/03

By David Cronin

THE European Commission lacks a "reliable overview" of how it uses outside advice to draft legislation, a new study concludes.

Billed as the first thorough scrutiny undertaken of the Commission's 'expert groups', the work by Torbjörn Larsson, a professor of political science at Stockholm University, finds that some of its departments do not even have updated details of their links with these little-known structures.

Based on information from its general secretariat, Larsson calculates that the Commission has more than 1,300 expert groups; normally these comprise one representative from each EU state but some also include lobbyists. In an analysis of the directorate-general (DG) for enterprise, he says that the department had a "very inaccurate" list of the expert groups it consults. Overall, the DG states it has 130 such groups but Larsson says "it proved impossible" to establish the status of 54 of them, estimating that just 39 of those with a known status actually held meetings.

Larsson adds that, apart from budgetary rules (which state that the Commission will only cover the travel and accommodation expenses of one and in a small number of cases two 'experts' from each EU country), those covering the expert groups are tacit, rather than prescriptive. One rule of thumb that is generally followed is that lobbies invited to be represented on expert groups must be organised on an EU-wide basis.

He also feels that individual member states may have a particularly strong influence over some of these groups. For example, the 'working party on external fisheries policy' accompanies Commission officials when they travel to countries outside the Union to negotiate deals enabling the European fleet access to their waters. "Having people on the spot sounds like an interesting construction that perhaps benefits the member states with the strongest interest in the field, who without hesitation send people across the world, being present in all negotiations," he remarks.

Larsson describes the Clean Air for Europe expert group as "a splendid example of a case where the Commission's ambitions have clearly been to be open and inclusive towards member states as well as other interests."

Comprising national civil servants, environment campaigners and industry representatives, it evaluates EU air quality rules and acts as a think-tank on policy development.

He casts a less favourable eye, though, on the expert group set up to examine the issues arising from the closure of the Renault car factory in Vilvorde, Belgium, in 1996-97, which left thousands jobless. Per Gyllenhammer, the former Volvo executive director, was appointed the group's chairman.

The only tangible effect of its work cited by Larsson is a decision that the effects of industrial relocation should be monitored.

"We have a group made up by members carrying a lot of weight, but this time the group was a response to strong political pressure and the results were limited," says Larsson.

HE European Commission lacks a 'reliable overview' of how it uses outside advice to draft legislation, according to a new study by Torbjörn Larsson, a professor of political science at Stockholm University.