Regulation, deregulation, re-regulation

Abstract:

This volume examines the normative issues associated with attempts to reform the structures and processes through which the EU governs. The first of the three essays, 'Good governance' and regulatory reform, considers attempts to improve the quality of EU legislation which arose from a range of concerns that emerged in the 1990s. The author looks at the process of regulatory reform, instruments of regulation and multi-level politics and the resort to community legislation. Within this chapter too the possibilities and limitations that are inherent in the subsidiarity principle are examined. The second essay, Agreement through social dialogue - contracted-out decision making and the problem of participation, looks towards the development of new modes of governance outside the traditional legislative processes of the EU. The final essay, Comitology, analyses the 1999 reforms to the 'comitology' system of implementation committees for legislation, particularly the 1999 Comitology Decision and its implications for the role of the European Parliament and constitutional legitimacy.

Kenneth Armstrong is a senior lecturer in law at Queen Mary and Westfield College and Jean Monnet Fellow, European University Institute, Florence (1999-2000).