Report from the Commission on the working of committees during 2009 SEC(2010)806
Date: 2010-07-02
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: European Commission, activity report, comitology, committee (EU), powers of the institutions (EU)

EN 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 2.7.2010 
COM(2010)354 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 

ON THE WORKING OF COMMITTEES DURING 2009 

SEC(2010)806 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
  
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 

ON THE WORKING OF COMMITTEES DURING 2009 

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  2009.  This  report  contains  an  overview  of 
developments in the comitology system and a summary of committees’ activities as well as an 
accompanying document 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 
20092  with  the  adoption  by  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  of  two  "omnibus" 
Regulations.  "Omnibus  part  2"  was  adopted  on  11  March  2009  and  "omnibus  part  4"  was 
adopted on 18 June 2009. These regulations bring together and amend respectively 47 and 46 
basic legal acts. 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  20093. 
This proposal became however obsolete with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. 

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

Since  the  new  comitology  register  was  put  into  operation  on  1  April  20084  further 
improvements  have  been  deployed.  These  enable  a  more  efficient  internal  operation  of  the 
system  and  enhance  transparency  in  the  public  repository.  Amongst  the  most  significant 
improvements made in 2009 with regard to transparency is the further precision in the stages 
of  procedure  for  a  draft  implementing  measure.  Now  it  is  possible  to  identify  which  draft 
implementing measure has been withdrawn by the Commission before being submitted for a 
formal vote by the comitology committee.  

1 
2 

3 
4 

The accompanying document 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  2008,  please  consult  the  report  from  the  Commission  on  the  working  of  Committees 
during 2008 (COM(2009)335 final). 
COM (2009)142 
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regcomitology/index_en.htm.  

EN 

2 

   EN 

 
                                                 
1.2. 

COMITOLOGY AND THE TREATY OF LISBON 

The Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU) contains two provisions which 
entail substantial modifications of the comitology procedures. They concern on the one hand 
"quasi-legislative measures", which are referred to as "delegated acts" (art. 290), and on the 
other hand straight-forward implementing measures, which are referred to as "implementing 
acts" (art 291). 

1.2.1. Delegated acts 

In  December  2009,  the  Commission  adopted  a  Communication  to  the  European  Parliament 
and the Council regarding the implementation of Article 290 of TFEU5. The purpose of this 
Communication is to set out the Commission's views on the scope of the delegated acts, the 
framework for delegations of power, the working methods the Commission intends to use for 
preparing the adoption of delegated acts and, finally, the conditions under which the legislator 
might  exercise  control  over  the  way  the  powers  conferred  on  the  Commission  are 
implemented. 

1.2.2. Implementing acts  

Article 291 of the TFEU makes clear that where uniform conditions for implementing legally 
binding acts are needed, those acts shall confer implementing powers on the Commission, or 
on  the  Council  in  duly  justified  specific  cases.  The  European  Parliament  and  the  Council, 
acting  by  means  of  regulations  in  accordance  with  ordinary  legislative  procedure,  shall  lay 
down  in  advance  the  rules  and  general  principles  concerning  mechanisms  for  control  by 
Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers. 

In early 2010, the Commission made a proposal for a “Comitology Regulation” which will set 
out rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the 
Commission’s  exercise  of 
the 
“Comitology Decision” adopted by the Council in 1999 and amended in 2006.  

implementing  powers6.  This  regulation  will  replace 

5 
6 

COM(2009) 673 final of 9.12.2009 
COM(2010) 83 final of 9.03.2010 

EN 

3 

   EN 

 
                                                 
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 2009 was 
calculated  by  sector  of  activity  (see  Table  I).  The  figures  for  the  previous  year  (on 
31 December 2008) are also given for comparison. 

TABLE I – TOTAL NUMBER OF COMMITTEES 

Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) 

Policy sector 

2008 

28 

2009 

15 

Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) 

Budget (BUDG) 

Education and Culture (EAC) 

Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (EMPL) 

Enlargement (ELARG) 

Enterprise and Industry (ENTR) 

Environment (ENV) 

EuropeAid (AIDCO) 

External Relations (RELEX) 

Fisheries and Maritime Affairs (MARE) 

Health and Consumers (SANCO) 

Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) 

Information Technology (DIGIT) 

Information Society and Media (INFSO) 

Internal Market (MARKT) 

Justice, Liberty and Security (JLS) 

Regional Policy (REGIO) 

Research (RTD) 

Statistics (ESTAT) 

Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD) 

Trade (TRADE) 

Transport and Energy (TREN) 

1 

2 

7 

5 

3 

34 

35 

8 

3 

4 

17 

1 

1 

9 

13 

24 

1 

6 

9 

10 

12 

36 

1 

2 

6 

5 

3 

39 

36 

7 

4 

4 

16 

1 

2 

8 

14 

24 

1 

7 

10 

12 

10 

39 

TOTAL: 

269 

266 

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 

EN 

4 

   EN 

 
procedure,  plus  the  safeguard  procedure),  they  have  been  singled  out  from  committees 
operating under a single procedure. 

TABLE II – NUMBER OF COMMITTEES BY PROCEDURE (2009) 

Type of procedure 

Advisory 

Management 

Regulatory 

Regulatory 
w/srcutiny 

Operates under 
several 
procedures 

AGRI 

AIDCO 

BUDG 

DIGIT 

EAC 

ECHO 

ELARG 

EMPL 

ENTR 

ENV 

ESTAT 

INFSO 

JLS 

MARE 

MARKT 

OLAF 

REGIO 

RELEX 

RTD 

SANCO 

TAXUD 

TRADE 

TREN 

TOTAL: 

1 

1 

2 

6 

4 

1 

2 

2 

3 

22 

5 

5 

2 

1 

3 

3 

1 

2 

2 

1 

1 

1 

2 

3 

3 

2 

1 

5 

1 

1 

10 

5 

1 

1 

3 

1 

1 

7 

6 

3 

6 

38 

51 

5 

2 

4 

1 

2 

18 

27 

7 

6 

15 

3 

8 

1 
 1 
4 

8 

1 

3 

28 

143 

2 

3 

3 

2 

1 

11 

TOTAL 

15 

7 

2 

2 

6 

1 

3 

5 

39 

36 

10 

8 

24 

4 

14 

1 

1 

4 

7 

16 

12 

10 

39 

266 

The figures indicate that about 19% of the committees (51 out of 266) work exclusively under 
the  regulatory  procedure,  followed  by  a  smaller  number  of  committees  working  exclusively 
under  the  management  procedure  (37).  However,  most  committees  (55%)  operate  under 
several procedures (143  out  of 266).  The breakdown by policy sector shows  that  use of the 
different types of procedures varies from one policy sector to another. However, in the area of 
Enterprise  and  Industry,  for  instance,  a  large  number  of  committees  operate  under  the 
regulatory procedure.  

EN 

5 

   EN 

 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
The  number  of  committees  is  not  the  only  indicator  of  activity  at  comitology  level.  The 
number of meetings held in 2009 reflects the intensity of work in general, at sector level and 
in individual committees (Table III).  

TABLE III – NUMBER OF MEETINGS 

AGRI 

AIDCO 

BUDG 

DIGIT  

EAC 

ECHO 

ELARG 

EMPL 

ENTR 

ENV 

ESTAT 

INFSO 

2008 

226 

38 

5 

3 

14 

6 

6 

4 

57 

57 

16 

28 

2009 

165 

40 

5 

3 

13 

4 

5 

5 

48 

67 

19 

24 

2008 

2009 

JLS 

MARE 

MARKT 

OLAF 

REGIO 

RELEX 

RTD 

SANCO 

TAXUD 

TRADE 

TREN 

TOTAL: 

37 

15 

42 

3 

9 

4 

62 

123 

114 

24 

60 

953 

40 

15 

32 

3 

10 

3 

62 

124 

107 

17 

83 

894 

As  was  the  case  in  2008,  Agriculture  (AGRI)  leads  the  field  with  165  meetings  despite  the 
significant  decrease  in  the  number  of  committees  as  compared  to  2008  (by  nearly  50%). 
These figures witness the intensity of managing the different agricultural markets. Agriculture 
(AGRI) is followed by Health and Consumers (SANCO) with 124 meetings and Taxation and 
Customs Union (TAXUD) with 107 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  Commission7.  These  figures  quantify  the  tangible 
“output”  of  the  committees  (see  Table  IV).  The  total  number  of  opinions  delivered  by  the 
committees in 2009 was 2 091 (compared with 2 185 in 2008); the number of implementing 
measures adopted by the Commission was 1 808 (compared with 2 022 in 2008).  

7 

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 
Commission Staff Working Document. 

EN 

6 

   EN 

 
 
 
                                                 
TABLE IV – NUMBER OF OPINIONS AND IMPLEMENTING MEASURES ADOPTED (2009) 

Opinions  Measures not 

under 
codecision 

Measures 
under 
codecision 

Opinions 

Measures not 
under 
codecision 

Measures 
under 
codecision 

AGRI 

AIDCO 

BUDG 

DIGIT  

EAC 

ECHO 

ELARG 

EMPL 

460 

224 

5 

1 

40 

51 

58 

14 

ENTR 

207 

ENV 

ESTAT 

INFSO 

88 

30 

66 

459 

103 

0 

0 

0 

0 

56 

0 

0 

3 

0 

15 

1 

JLS 

118 

MARE  

0 

1 

39 

46 

0 

14 

MARKT  

OLAF  

REGIO  

RELEX 

RTD 

SANCO  

108 

TAXUD 

TRADE 

TREN 

77 

24 

50 

57 

37 

28 

0 

5 

1 

202 

278 

147 

6 

86 

8 

39 

2 

0 

2 

1 

190 

96 

49 

4 

2 

TOTAL: 

2 091 

1 029 

46 

0 

25 

0 

0 

0 

1 

153 

2 

0 

74 

779 

The large number of implementing measures adopted in certain policy sectors – Agriculture 
(460), Health and Consumers (249), Europe Aid (221), Research (191) and Enterprise (108), 
– again reflects the intensity of work delegated to the Commission in these areas8. Compared 
with  the  previous  year,  there  has  been  an  increase,  notably  in  relation  to  Agriculture  (460 
implementing measures in  2009, compared with 439 in 2008) and EuropeAid (221 in 2009, 
compared  with  110  in  2008).  There  has  been  a  significant  decrease  in  the  implementing 
measures adopted in relation to EAC (39 in 2009 as compared to 69 in 2008). 

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 131 for 2009, 
Environment  being  the  sector  that  uses  the  procedure  most  (33  measures),  followed  by 
Transport and energy (29) (see Table V).  

In 2009 the European Parliament made use of its right of veto on draft measures only in one 
case. This means that in total the two legislators used their right of veto in just 0,8% of cases: 

–  In  May  2009  the  European  Parliament  opposed  a  draft  measure  related  to  the  Energy 
Labelling  Directive  and  regarding  the  labelling  of  televisions.  The  draft  measure  was 
consequently  not  adopted.  A  revised  measure  will  be  adopted  in  2010  in  the  form  of  a 
delegated  act,  further  to  the  adoption  by  Parliament  and  Council  of  the  Proposal  for  a 

8 

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

EN 

7 

   EN 

 
 
 
                                                 
Directive  on  the  indication  by  labelling  and  standard  product  information  of  the 
consumption of energy and other resources by energy-related products9.  

For comparison, in 2008 the Council and Parliament used their veto right in 10% of the cases 
(7 implementing measures). 

TABLE V –  NUMBER  OF  IMPLEMENTING  MEASURES  ADOPTED  ACCORDING  TO  THE 

REGULATORY PROCEDURE WITH SCRUTINY (RPS) (2009) 

Measures adopted 
according to RPS 
0 

EP opposed 
adoption of draft 
measures under 
RPS 
0 

Council opposed 
adoption of draft 
measures under 
RPS 
0 

EP/Council 
opposed adoption 
of draft measures 
under RPS 
0 

Total 
oppositions 
0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1 

16 

33 

7 

1 

0 

0 

20 

0 

0 

0 

0 

24 

0 

0 
29 
131 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 
1 
1 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 
0 
0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 
0 
0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 
1 
1 

AGRI 

AIDCO 

BUDG 

DIGIT 

ECHO 

ELARG 

EMPL 

ENTR 

ENV 

ESTAT 

INFSO 

JLS 

MARE 

MARKT 

OLAF 

REGIO 

RELEX 

RTD 

SANCO 

TAXUD 

TRADE 

TREN 

Total: 

3. 

DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEES 

The  Commission  Staff  Working  Document  accompanying  this  report  provides  detailed 
information on the work of the individual committees in 2009, 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. 

9 

COM (2008) 778 of 13.11.2008 

EN 

8 

   EN