Controlling Comitology: Accountability in a Multi-Level System

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.

Contents:

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