EU Policy-Making: The Role of Working Parties in the Council of Ministers

Session 1: Governance in the European Unio

Decision-making in the council of the European Union. The role of committees.

Many legislative decisions of the Council of the EuropeanUnion are de facto made in preparatory bodies by national officials anddiplomats. Ministers rubber-stamp these committee decisions without discussion.Drawing on statistical as well as case study evidence, the study investigatesthe extent to which this actually occurs. Based on a formal-theoreticaldiscussion of possible explanations, the study also examines the causes for whycertain decisions are made by committee members and others by ministers. Ingeneral, the empirical findings alleviate concerns about the democraticlegitimacy of Council decisions.LEI Universiteit LeidenThe politics and administration of institutional chang