Report from the Commission on the working of committees during 2008 {SEC(2009) 913}
Date: 2009-07-03
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European Commission, activity report, comitology, committee (EU), institutional reform, legislative-executive relations, powers of the institutions (EU)

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 3.7.2009 
COM(2009) 335 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 

ON THE WORKING OF COMMITTEES DURING 2008 

{SEC(2009) 913} 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 

ON THE WORKING OF COMMITTEES DURING 2008 

In  accordance  with  Article  7(4)  of  Council  Decision  1999/468/EC  of  28  June  1999 
(hereinafter  referred  to  as  the  "comitology  Decision"),  the  Commission  hereby  presents  the 
annual  report  on  the  working  of  committees  for  2008.  This  report  contains  an  overview  of 
developments in the comitology system and a summary of committee’ activities as well as an 
Annex with detailed statistics on the work of the individual committees1. 

1. 

OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COMITOLOGY SYSTEM 

1.1. 

Implementation  of  the  reform  of  the  comitology  procedure  (Council  Decision 
2006/512/EC amending Council Decision 1999/468/EC) 

1.1.1.  Alignment 

The alignment exercise aiming to bring existing basic acts into line with the new regulatory 
procedure  with  scrutiny  (RPS),  introduced  by  Council  Decision  2006/512/EC,  continued  in 
20082  with  the  adoption  by  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  of  the  first  set  of 
"priority  alignments"  on  11  March  20083,  followed  by  the  adoption  on  22  October  2008  of 
two "omnibus" Regulations,  "omnibus  part 1"4 and "omnibus part 3"5, which bring together 
and amend 59 and 4 basic legal acts respectively, and finally "omnibus part 2"6, which covers 
47 basic legal acts and was adopted on 11 March 2009. 

The  Commission  adopted  a  proposal  for  a  fourth  omnibus  Regulation7,  covering  the 
alignment of 46 acts, in February 2008.  

Moreover,  in  its  resolution  of  23 September 2008,  the  European  Parliament  asked  the 
Commission  to  make  proposals  for  the  alignment  of  14  additional  basic  legal  acts.  The 
Commission  examined  these  instruments  closely  but  did  not  deem  it  appropriate  to  present 
proposals  for  all  of  them,  since,  inter  alia,  some  had  already  been  aligned  by  other  acts  or 
because,  in  the  Commission's  opinion,  the  implementing  powers  contained  therein  were  not 
subject to RPS. As a result of this assessment, the Commission adopted a proposal for a fifth 
and final omnibus Regulation covering two basic legal acts, on 30 March 20098.  

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2 

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4 
5 
6 
7 
8 

The Annex is presented as a separate Commission staff working document. 
For  more  information  on  the  background  to  the  alignment  process  as  well  as  activities  undertaken  in 
this  regard  in  2007,  please  consult  the  report  from  the  Commission  on  the  working  of  Committees 
during 2007 (COM(2008)844 final). 
OJ L 76, 19.03.2008; OJ L 81, 20.03.2008; OJ L 97, 09.04.2008. 
Regulation (EC) No. 1137/2008, OJ L 311, 21.11.2008, p. 1. 
Regulation (EC) No. 1103/2008, OJ L 304, 14.11.2008, p. 80. 
OJ L 87, 31.03.2009, p. 109. 
COM(2008)71. 
COM(2009)142. 

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1.1.2.  Revision of the inter-institutional agreement 

A revised inter-institutional agreement between the European Parliament and the Commission 
on the procedures for implementing the comitology Decision was adopted on 3 June 20089. 
This  revision  brings  the  agreement  into  line  with  the  changes  in  the  comitology  procedures 
introduced  by  Council  Decision  2006/512/EC,  in  particular  RPS,  and  with  its  annexed 
statements  on  transparency  and  an  improved  comitology  register10.  In  addition,  the  revised 
agreement aims to streamline existing arrangements between the two institutions. 

1.1.3.  Comitology and transparency: the register and repository for comitology documents 

In a statement regarding Article 7(3) of the comitology Decision (transparency statement)11, 
the Commission undertook to improve the comitology register in order to enable the European 
Parliament  to  follow  the  different  stages  and  timetable  of  each  comitology  procedure  better 
and to distinguish between the various types of documents received. 

Therefore, to accompany the reform of the comitology Decision, the Commission developed a 
new and much improved comitology register to give the European Parliament and the general 
public more transparent and coherent access to the documents and other relevant information. 
The new register was put into operation on 1 April 200812. 

1.2. 

Development of case law 

In  its  judgment  of  1  April  2008  (joined  Cases  C-14/06  and  C-295/06,  European  Parliament 
and Kingdom of Denmark v Commission of the European Communities), the Court of Justice 
annulled Point 2 of the Annex to the Commission Decision13 2005/717/EC amending for the 
purposes of adapting to technical progress the Annex to the RoHS Directive14 as concerns the 
exemption  for  Decabromodiphenyl  ether  (DecaBDE)  in  polymeric  applications.  The  Court 
also declared that the effects of that provision should nevertheless be maintained until 30 June 
2008 inclusive. 

The Court concluded that the decision, which was equivalent to a general exemption for the 
use of DecaBDE in electrical and electronic equipment, was adopted when the conditions laid 
down by the Community legislature in Article 5(1) of the RoHS Directive had not been met 
and  ran  counter  to  the  objective  pursued  by  that  legislature  of  establishing  the  principle  of 
prohibition of the components referred to in that directive. In adopting that decision as regards 
the exemption of DecaBDE, the Commission thus infringed Article 5(1).  

The Court thus confirms the general principle that in exercising its implementing powers the 
Commission  is  authorised  to  adopt  all  the  measures  necessary  or  appropriate  for  the 
implementation of the basic legislation, provided that they are not contrary to it. 

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14 

OJ C 143, 10.6.2008, p. 1. 
OJ C 171, 22.7.2006, p. 21. 
OJ C 171, 22.7.2006, p. 21. 
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regcomitology/index_en.htm.  
Decision 2005/717/EC of 13 October 2005 
Directive  2002/95/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  the  restriction  of  the  use  of 
certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. 

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2. 

OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES 

2.1 

Number of committees and meetings 

It is important to draw a distinction between the comitology committees, on the one hand, and 
other  entities,  in  particular  “expert  groups”  created  by  the  Commission  itself,  on  the  other. 
The  latter  provide  expertise  to  the  Commission  in  preparing  and  implementing  policy, 
whereas  comitology  committees  assist  the  Commission  in  the  exercise  of  the  implementing 
powers that have been conferred upon it by basic legal acts. This report focuses exclusively 
on comitology committees. The number of comitology committees on 31 December 2008 was 
calculated  by  sector  of  activity  (see  Table  I).  The  figures  for  the  previous  year  (on 
31 December 2007) are also given for comparison. 

TABLE I – TOTAL NUMBER OF COMMITTEES 

Policy sector  

Enterprise and Industry (ENTR) 

Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (EMPL) 

Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) 

Transport and Energy (TREN) 

Environment (ENV) 

Research (RTD) 

Information Society and Media (INFSO) 

Fisheries and Maritime Affairs (MARE) 

Internal Market (MARKT) 

Regional Policy (REGIO) 

Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD) 

Education and Culture (EAC) 

Health and Consumers (SANCO) 

Justice, Liberty and Security (JLS) 

External Relations (RELEX) 

Trade (TRADE) 

Enlargement (ELARG) 

EuropeAid (AIDCO) 

Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) 

Statistics (ESTAT) 

Budget (BUDG) 

Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) 

Information Technology (DIGIT) 

TOTAL 

2007 

2008 

33 

4 

31 

35 

35 

5 

9 

4 

13 

1 

11 

6 

17 

21 

3 

12 

3 

9 

1 

9 

2 

1 

1 

34 

5 

28 

36 

35 

6 

9 

4 

14 

1 

10 

7 

17 

24 

3 

12 

3 

8 

1 

9 

2 

1 

1 

266 

270 

The  comitology  committees  can  generally  be  classified  according  to  the  type  of  procedure 
under which they operate (advisory procedure, management procedure, regulatory procedure, 
regulatory  procedure  with  scrutiny  and  safeguard  procedure  -  see  Table  II).  Since  certain 
committees apply multiple procedures (ranging from the advisory procedure to the regulatory 
procedure,  plus  the  safeguard  procedure),  they  have  been  singled  out  from  committees 
operating under a single procedure. 

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TABLE II – NUMBER OF COMMITTEES BY PROCEDURE (2008) 

Type of procedure 

Advisory 

Management 

Regulatory 

Regulatory 
with scrutiny 

Safeguard 

Committee 
operating 
under several 
procedures 

ENTR 

EMPL 

AGRI 

TREN 

ENV 

RTD 

INFSO 

MARE 

MARKT 

REGIO 

TAXUD 

EAC 

SANCO 

JLS 

RELEX 

TRADE 

ELARG 

AIDCO 

ECHO 

ESTAT 

BUDG 

OLAF 

DIGIT 

6 

2 

0 

3 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1 

0 

1 

1 

2 

4 

0 

3 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1 

0 

0 

3 

0 

19 

3 

2 

2 

4 

1 

1 

0 

3 

1 

0 

1 

2 

3 

3 

7 

0 

3 

0 

0 

1 

15 

2 

5 

9 

21 

0 

0 

0 

7 

0 

5 

0 

8 

4 

0 

3 

0 

0 

0 

2 

1 

1 

0 

TOTAL 

24 

59 

83 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

2 

0 

0 

0 

0 

2 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

4 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

10 

1 

4 

21 

13 

4 

5 

3 

3 

1 

1 

5 

7 

13 

1 

2 

0 

1 

1 

4 

0 

0 

0 

100 

The figures indicate that about 31% of the committees (83 out of 270) work exclusively under 
the  regulatory  procedure,  followed  by  a  smaller  number  of  committees  working  exclusively 
under  the  management  procedure  (59).  However,  most  committees  (37%)  operate  under 
several procedures (100  out  of 270).  The breakdown by policy sector shows  that  use of the 

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different types of procedures varies from one policy sector to another. However, in some of 
the policy sectors, a clear dominance of one of the procedures can be noted: the Transport and 
Energy,  Environment  and  Enterprise  and  Industry  sectors,  for  instance,  work  with  a  large 
number  of  committees  under  the  regulatory  procedure,  whereas  Agriculture  works  with  a 
large number of committees under the management procedure.  

The  number  of  committees  is  not  the  only  indicator  of  activity  at  comitology  level.  The 
number of meetings held in 2008 reflects the intensity of work in general, at sector level and 
in individual committees (Table III).  

TABLE III – NUMBER OF MEETINGS 

ENTR 

EMPL 

AGRI 

TREN  

ENV 

RTD 

INFSO 

MARE 

MARKT 

REGIO 

TAXUD 

EAC 

2007 

42 

5 

256 

67 

75 

60 

30 

17 

43 

9 

91 

15 

2008 

57 

4 

226 

60 

57 

62 

28 

15 

42 

9 

114 

14 

SANCO 

JLS 

RELEX 

TRADE 

ELARG 

AIDCO  

ECHO 

ESTAT 

BUDG 

OLAF 

DIGIT 

TOTAL 

2007 

167 

31 

4 

23 

12 

35 

7 

19 

7 

3 

3 

2008 

123 

37 

4 

24 

6 

38 

6 

16 

5 

3 

3 

1.021 

953 

As was the case in 2007, Agriculture leads the field with 226 meetings, since managing the 
different  agricultural  markets  requires  frequent  meetings.  Agriculture  is  followed  by  Health 
and Consumers with 123 meetings and Taxation and Customs Union with 114 meetings. 

2.2 

Number of opinions and implementing measures 

As  in  previous  reports,  this  report  gives  global  figures  on  formal  opinions  delivered  by  the 
committees and the subsequent implementing measures (i.e. legal acts or administrative and 
financing  decisions)  adopted  by  the  Commission15.  These  figures  quantify  the  tangible 
“output”  of  the  committees  (see  Table  IV).  The  total  number  of  opinions  delivered  by  the 
committees in 2008 was 2 185 (compared with 2 613 in 2007); the number of implementing 
measures adopted by the Commission was 2 022 (compared with 2 522 in 2007).  

15 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  there  can  be  discrepancies  between  the  number  of  opinions  and  the  number  of 
implementing measures in any given year. The reasons for these are explained in the introduction to the 
Annex. 

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TABLE IV – NUMBER OF OPINIONS AND IMPLEMENTING MEASURES ADOPTED (2008) 

Opinions 

Implementing 
measures 

Opinions 

Implementing 
measures 

ENTR 

EMPL 

AGRI 

TREN  

ENV 

RTD 

INFSO 

MARE 

MARKT 

REGIO 

TAXUD 

EAC 

362 

21 

456 

68 

78 

168 

79 

39 

26 

4 

65 

71 

307 

SANCO  

20 

JLS  

439 

RELEX  

63 

85 

TRADE  

ELARG  

168 

AIDCO  

ECHO  

ESTAT  

BUDG  

OLAF  

DIGIT 

79 

39 

16 

0 

55 

69 

358 

117 

0 

11 

69 

115 

47 

23 

4 

3 

1 

311 

106 

0 

12 

69 

110 

47 

20 

6 

0 

1 

TOTAL 

2.185 

2.022 

The large number of implementing measures adopted in certain policy sectors – Agriculture 
(439), Enterprise (307), Health and Consumers (311), Research (168) and Europe Aid (110) – 
again reflects the intensity of work delegated to the Commission in these areas16. Compared 
with  the  previous  year,  there  has  been  a  decrease,  notably  in  relation  to  Agriculture  (439 
implementing  measures  in  2008,  compared  with  963  in  2007)  and EuropeAid (110 in 2008, 
compared with 388 in 2007). 

2.3 

Use of the Regulatory Procedure with Scrutiny (RPS) 

The figures provided in Table IV on the number of implementing measures adopted include 
the number of measures that are adopted according to RPS. This figure stands at 71 for 2008, 
Environment  being  the  sector  that  uses  the  procedure  most  (21  measures),  followed  by 
Enterprise and Industry (13) (see Table V).  

The Council and European Parliament have made use of their right of veto on draft measures 
in just 10% of cases (7 measures): 

–  The Council opposed the adoption of six draft measures in the field of Environment, on the 
grounds that they exceeded the implementing powers provided for in the basic instruments 
in as much as they imposed upon the Member States a requirement to communicate their 
transposition  measures  by  means  of  correlation  tables.  As  a  result,  the  Commission 
removed  the  contested  provisions  from  the  draft  measures  and  re-submitted  them  as 
amended to the competent Committees. 

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Note that the sheer number of measures adopted as such gives no indication of the political, economic 
or financial importance of the decisions taken. 

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–  The  European  Parliament  opposed  the  adoption  of  one  draft  measure  in  the  field  of 
Internal Market, on the grounds that it exceeded the implementing powers provided for in 
the  basic  instrument  in  as  much  as  it  included  a  provision  that  went  beyond  a  technical 
adjustment and should therefore be dealt with in accordance with the codecision procedure. 
As  a  result,  the  Commission  removed  the  contested  provision  and  re-submitted  the  draft 
measure as amended to the competent Committee. 

TABLE V –  NUMBER  OF  IMPLEMENTING  MEASURES  ADOPTED  ACCORDING  TO  THE 

REGULATORY PROCEDURE WITH SCRUTINY (RPS) (2008) 

No. of measures adopted according 
to RPS 

No. of times EP has opposed 
adoption of draft measures under 
RPS 

No. of times Council has opposed 
adoption of draft measures under 
RPS 

ENTR 

EMPL 

AGRI 

TREN 

ENV 

RTD 

INFSO 

MARE 

MARKT 

REGIO 

TAXUD 

EAC 

SANCO 

JLS 

RELEX 

TRADE 

ELARG 

AIDCO 

ECHO 

ESTAT 

BUDG 

OLAF 

13 

0 

0 

9 

21 

0 

0 

0 

10 

0 

8 

0 

3 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

3 

4 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

6 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

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No. of measures adopted according 
to RPS 

No. of times EP has opposed 
adoption of draft measures under 
RPS 

No. of times Council has opposed 
adoption of draft measures under 
RPS 

DIGIT 

TOTAL 

0 

71 

0 

1 

0 

6 

3. 

DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEES 

The  Annex  to  this  report  provides  detailed  information  on  the  work  of  the  individual 
committees  in  2008,  classified  on  the  basis  of  the  different  Commission  departments 
concerned. It also provides information on changes in the number of committees as well as on 
specific  situations  relating  to  particular  draft  measures,  such  as  unfavourable  opinions, 
referrals to the Council or oppositions of the Council or the Parliament under RPS. 

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