Delegation, comitology and the separation of powers in the European Union.

Ford ecades the EU's three major governing institutions- Commission, Council and Parliament- have staged a fierce power struggle over questions of competence and influece concerning the implementation of EU's acts and policies. At the heart of the debate is the role of a number of oversight committees established by the Council to evaluate Commission's proposals for implementin EU acts: over the time, this phenomenon has become known as comitology.

Similar to the legislative process, EU policy implementation procedures mix the roles of the Commission and the Councilk, blurring the lines of responsibility and moving the process further from a system of separate powers. The 1987 Decision specified 3 types of comitology committee procedures advisory, management and regulatory committees.Advisory committee: the commission submits a draft proposal for an implementing measure to the committee. The committee must then deliver its opinion within certain time, set by chair, voting by simple majority, the opinios is then recorded in m inutes, additionally, each Government can ask to report its position in the minutes. Management committees: the Commission submits a proposal to implement an EU law. The committee must then deliver its opinion within a certain time limit, set by the chair according to the urgency of matter. Qualified majority voting delivers the opinion. If the committee delivers a negative opinion the proposal is referred to the Council. Regulatory committees: under this procedure, the commission must submit the proposal for an implementing measure. The committee sets its opinion by a qualified majority vote within a certain time of period, ste by the chair according to the urgency of the matter.

Our formal model of commitology demonstrates that the oversight process has a significant impact on policy outcomes by forcing the commission to modify its proposals. Commission