Council Decision 1999/468 – A New Comitology Decision for the 21st Century!?

Haibach, Georg (1999) Council Decision 1999/468 – A New Comitology Decision for the 21st Century!? EIPASCOPE, 1999 (3). pp. 1-9.

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Abstract

[Introduction]. On 28 June 1999 the Council adopted a new "Comitology" Decision which contains several significant changes with respect to the previous Decision of 1987. The term "comitology" which is well known today was apparently coined in the European Parliament in 1987. It refers to law-making procedures in the EC which have, however, existed since the 1960s and which involve committees composed of the representatives of the governments of the Member States at the level of civil servants. Comitology in the last 40 years has been probably the most fervently contested interinstitutional battleground between the Commission, Council and the European Parliament. It is the purpose of this article to assess whether the new Decision can put an end to that long-lasting struggle. For a better understanding of the underlying reasons of this power struggle and the positions of the different institutions, first a brief overview of the most important steps from the establishment of the first committees in the 1960s up to the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 will be given. This is followed by a detailed presentation of the major changes introduced by the new Decision, based on a description of the positions adopted by the Commission and the European Parliament.

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