ABSTRACT
This article examines a crucial property of the European governance system. The EU is frequently understood as a governance system characterised by a strong degree of interpenetration of different levels of government and a plethora of interactions between EU institutions, national and sub-national administrations as well as organised non-state interests. The ubiquity of different kinds of public policy networks or expert groups involved in consultation, bargaining, deliberation and decision-making is believed to be a prominent feature of the European governance system (Eising and Kohler-Koch 1999; Kohler-Koch 1997; Kohler-Koch and Rittberger 2006). Nowhere is this kind of multi-level governance system as evident as in the numerous expert groups and committees of the EU. Such committees are in some sense the epitome of the European multi-level governance system at work. EU committees encompass an array of bodies that vary considerably in what they do, how they are organised, what role they play in EU policy-making and to which EU institution they are anchored. Several specific and detailed studies have provided information and insights regarding the functions and dynamics of these public policy networks (Beyers and Trondal 2004; Christiansen and Larsson 2007; Egeberg et al. 2003; Larsson and Murk 2007; Wessels 1997). Scholarly attention has been paid in particular to the role of committees in overseeing the execution of EU rules by the Commission (Dehousse 2003; Dogan 1997; Franchino 2000; Pollack 2003), and there have been attempts to assess the extent to which committees and consultative organs affect the democratic quality of the European Union (Joerges and Neyer 1997; Rhinard 2002; Vos 1997). 1
