The increased use of early agreements in the EU co-decision procedure raises the concern that intra and inter-institutional political debate is sacrificed for the sake of efficiency. We investigate the effect of early agreements (trilogues) on the time it takes for legislation to be negotiated...

The European Commission plays a major role as regulator in the process of implementation of European legislation. Just looking at the figures of implementing measures one will find that the Commission adopts more than 2.500 such legal acts per year. As is well known the Commission is not alone...

Comitology committees are often accused of not being accountable. This paper aims to provide building blocks to analyze the validity of this claim. After briefly discussing the meaning and aims of accountability, it is discussed where the actual accountability problems can be expected....

The European Council occupies a central role in European politics. Yet it is not officially accountable to any public or parliamentary body for the decisions it makes on behalf of European citizens. National parliaments are only entitled to exert control over their own Heads of Government or...

This article seeks to explain the varying, and sometimes intriguing, outcomes of the past three revisions of the Treaty concerning the Community’s Common Commercial Policy (CCP). The analysis particularly focuses on the development of competence and decision rules, i.e. the process of...

The Treaty on European Union (EU) has on the one hand increased democratic legitimacy of the integration process by confering new powers to the European Parliament (EP) - legitimacy viewed as an attribute-, while on the other hand acceptance by the citizens - legitimacy conceived as orientation...

This paper analyses the so-called 'Draft Treaty of Amsterdam' of 19 June 1997, focusing on the changes concerning the institutions and the decision-making procedures. It is argued that the sum of envisaged changes will considerably alter the institutional balance between the three main actors,...

It is a truism that the emergent European polity contributes to the transformation of interest representation in Europe. It is, however, highly contested if a uniform system of interest intermediation is in the making and if so, what will be its shape. Pressures to adapt are quite strong, but...

Over the past five decades the European Parliament (EP) has moved from being a largely consultative assembly to being a genuine co-legislature. The growth in the EPs powers was accompanied by a revaluation of its Standing Committees. It is in these committees, the legislative backbone of the EP,...

This paper studies the basic characteristics of the political legitimacy of the European Parliament (EP) within the supranational political system of the European Union (EU) and argues that an increase in the political legitimacy of the EP might provide a solution to the legitimacy problem at...