Beyond mere ‘consultation’: Expanding the European Committee of the Regions’ role

Abstract

The Committee of the Regions is commonly seen as a ‘minor’ part of the EU’s policy-making system, but its institutional development and action offer interesting examples of the strategies used to actively expand the body’s role. By tracing how the CoR is developing its institutional capacity, pushing the boundaries of its consultative mandate and deploying activities beyond its formal role, the article illustrates the institutional activism which characterizes much of the development of the EU institutional structure.

Pushing the Boundaries. New Research on the Activism of EU Supranational Institutions

“…For elected officials (members of the Parliament, Committee of the Regions and several EESC officials) or officials hoping to (re-)enter EU or national politics, electoral considerations can also be included in the study of utility maximisation. In this special edition, Schönlau (2017) argues that the activism of regional government members of the Committee of the Regions stemmed largely from the desire to protect regional government policy-making powers from the incursion of national governments in the context of EU policy making. Pegan (2017) emphasises the rationalist source of, respectively, European Parliament and Commission activist preferences.…”

“…Thus, Roos (2017) shows how MEPs saw in Europeanlevel policy making the opportunity to forward social objectives to which they were committed. Schönlau (2017) argues that the activism of regional government members of the Committee of the Regions was not only driven by a desire to protect regional government policy making powers from the incursion of EU policy making but also because of strong views about 'subsidiarity' and the importance of subnational government as 'closer to the people'.…”