"Policy implementation and comitology committees: Differentiating between policy legislation and policy implementation"

Haibach, Georg and Schaefer, Guenther F. and Tuerk, Alexander. (2001) "Policy implementation and comitology committees: Differentiating between policy legislation and policy implementation" . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2001 (7th), May 31-June 2, 2001, pages 14, Madison, Wisconsin.

Abstract

The research questions to be addressed by this subproject should contribute to a constructive solution to this important issue of the institutional balance by first establishing criteria for an operational demarcation between legislative and implementing measures, and secondly by assessing a large number of EC implementing acts to determine whether and in which cases implementing measures have in fact violated the prerogatives of the legislators Council and Parliament. The subproject therefore concentrates on the following questions, divided into a theoretical and an empirical approach: How can the line that separates implementing measures from those with legislative implications be drawn? How can that differentiation between legislative and implementing legal acts be made operational? How could an effective system of control be established that limits the implementing powers of the Commission and safeguards the prerogatives of the legislators, especially Parliament? Have the prerogatives of the legislative authorities been generally respected in implementing decisions in the course of the past years or have decisions with important legislative implications been decided upon according to comitology procedures? In which policy arenas has this primarily occurred? In what way have these possible "transgressions" affected the institutional balance?