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Türk, Alexander --- "The Role of the European Court of Justice in the Area of Comitology" [2007] ELECD 183; in Christiansen, Thomas; Larsson, Torbjörn (eds), "The Role of Committees in the Policy-Process of the European Union" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: The Role of Committees in the Policy-Process of the European Union

Editor(s): Christiansen, Thomas; Larsson, Torbjörn

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845426224

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: The Role of the European Court of Justice in the Area of Comitology

Author(s): Türk, Alexander

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

10. The role of the European Court of
Justice in the area of comitology
Alexander Türk

INTRODUCTION

The evolutionary development of EC policy implementation has been
driven by practical necessity and political arrangements rather than designed
around any preconceived constitutional model (Hofmann and Türk, 2006).
The huge volume of legal acts to be adopted, scientific and technical
uncertainty in many areas and the need to deal quickly with unexpected
circumstances made it necessary for the Council to confer implementing
powers on the Commission on a large scale. At the same time the Member
States wanted to retain some influence over the exercise of implementing
powers by the Commission. Community acts delegating implementing
powers to the Commission therefore provided that the Commission had
to consult committees comprised of representatives of the Member States
before adopting the necessary implementing rules.1 This system was soon
referred to as `comitology'.2
The prominent role which comitology occupies in the implementa-
tion phase has confronted the Court of Justice with a multitude of legal
problems, such as the definition and scope of implementing powers and the
legitimacy of comitology committees to name just two. The answers to these
questions were often not contained in the provisions of the E(E)C Treaty,
but had to be developed by the Court of Justice. This chapter will discuss
the case-law of the Court of Justice in the area of comitology in order
to elucidate how the Court has regulated comitology and thus influenced
...