ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I present background information on the organisation of the Council's committee system and its role in EU legislative decision-making. Besides presenting context information necessary for evaluating some of the choices made in the descriptive and explanatory analyses that follow, the descriptions in this chapter also serve to illustrate the size, complexity and potential importance of the Council's committee system. Thus, this chapter presents additional justification for researching the role and functioning of Council committees in EU decision-making. An equally important purpose of the chapter is to provide the procedural and organisational context in which the studied cases were embedded. Therefore, the descriptions portray the procedures, rules and organisational structures in operation during the study period from 2000 to 2005. 1
