ABSTRACT
Textbook accounts of the Council are not shy in using colourful metaphors to describe the overarching importance of committees for the functioning of the Council. For example, Hix (2005: 83) describes Coreper as ‘the real engine for much of the work of the Council’. Similarly, Westlake and Galloway (2004: 200) refer to Coreper as ‘the Council's backbone and engine room of Council business'. With respect to working parties, Westlake and Galloway (2004: 200) assert that ‘of all the Council's component parts, the working parties … are perhaps the least well-known yet among the most vital' and that they constitute ‘the Council's lifeblood'. In the same vein, Hayes-Renshaw and Wallace (2006: 96) state that ‘the working parties form the backbone of the entire process of European integration’. Despite the acknowledgements of the relevance of committees for the functioning of the Council, very little research has focused specifically on decision-making in Council committees and on the role and function of committees in the larger hierarchical structure of the Council.
