The implementation of EU policies through committees:: Mechanisms of comitology and its relevance for political science research

Comitalogy describes the existence and activity of a specific kind of committees in the European Union. Within these "comitology-committees", national and Commission officials, by issuing formal measures and by informally co-ordinating the whole policy, have an important role in the implementation of EU-policies. The article draws upon the institutional and procedural characteristics of comitology as well as on the quality of everyday governance within these committees. It also analyses the main patterns of inter-institutional conflicts having evolved between the Community institutions (Council, Commission, Parliament) concerning comitology during the past thirtyfive years. On this background, the challenging theoretical questions making comitology a subject of interest not only fora small number of specialists are outlined: From the perspective of integration theory, it is the relevance of intergovernmental and supranational elements in comitology, but also the demand for concepts going beyond this dichotomy. From a perspective of political steering, it is the role and the conditions for comitology-committees allowing successful political steering. Finally from the perspective of democracy theory, it is the question of the conditions of legitimacy of governance by committees.