Consultative Committees in
the European Union
No Vote – No Influence?
Diana Panke, Christoph Hönnige
and Julia Gollub
© Diana Panke, Christoph Hönnige and Julia Gollub 2015
First published by the ECPR Press in 2015
Cover Image © ShutterStock 89530405
The ECPR Press is the publishing imprint of the European Consortium for Political Research
(ECPR), a scholarly association, which supports and encourages the training, research and
cross-national co-operation of political scientists in institutions throughout Europe and beyond.
ECPR Press
Harbour House
Hythe Quay
Colchester
CO2 8JF
United Kingdom
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Typeset by Lapiz Digital Services
Printed and bound by Lightning Source
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-910-259-42-9
PDF ISBN: 978-1-910-259-35-1
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-910-259-36-8
KINDLE ISBN: 978-1-910-259-37-5
www.ecpr.eu/ecprpress
ECPR Press Series Editors:
Dario Castiglione (University of Exeter)
Peter Kennealy (European University Institute)
Alexandra Segerberg (Stockholm University)
More on the European Union from ECPR Press
Contesting Europe: Exploring Euroscepticism in Online Media Coverage
ISBN: 9781907301513
Asimina Michailidou and Hans-Jörg Trenz
Functional Representation and Democracy in the European Union:
The European Commission and Social NGOs
ISBN: 9781907301650
Corinna Wolff
Integrating Indifference: A Comparative, Qualitative and Quantitative
Approach to the Legitimacy of European Integration
ISBN: 9781907301483
Virginie Van Ingelgom
Practices of Interparliamentary Coordination in International Politics:
The European Union and Beyond
ISBN: 9781907301308
Ben Crum and John Erik Fossum (eds)
Please visit www.ecpr.eu/ecprpress for up-to-date information about new
publications.
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
vii
Abbreviations and Acronyms
xi
Preface
Chapter One – Introduction
Chapter Two – Consultative Committees in the EU
xiii
1
15
Chapter Three – Three Empirical Puzzles: The Influence of
Consultative Committees
27
Chapter Four – A Sender-Receiver Model: Exchanging
Information and Legitimacy for Influence
43
Chapter Five – Quantitative Analysis
63
Chapter Six – Three Case Studies
89
Chapter Seven – Conclusions
161
Appendices
179
Bibliography
211
Index
227
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
Figure 2.1: The CoR and the EESC in EU decision-making
18
Figure 3.1: Influence on receiver and the final policy outcome for
extent and importance of changes
32
Figure 3.2: Histograms: Influence on receivers
33
Figure 3.3: Histograms: Influence on the final policy outcome
33
Figure 3.4: Influence of CoR and EESC by receiver
37
Figure 3.5: Influence of CoR and EESC by receiver (means)
38
Figure 3.6: Influence of CoR and EESC by type of initiative
39
Figure 3.7: Influence of CoR and EESC by type of initiative (means)
39
Figure 4.1: A general sender-receiver model of the role
of consultative committees
48
Figure 6.1: Timeline of the decision-making process of the ECI regulation
105
Figure 6.2: Timeline of the decision-making process of the third
postal directive
129
Figure 6.3: Timeline of the decision-making process of the EGTC
regulation
148
Figure 6.4: Timeline of the decision-making process of the
amendment of the EGTC
157
Figure 7.1: Summary of findings
170
Appendix D: Quantitative Analysis – OLOGIT Models 1–8
effect plots
195
viii
Consultative Committees in the European Union
Tables
Table 2.1: Typology of committees
17
Table 2.2: Formal involvement of the CoR and EESC in EU legislation
2004–2010
21
Table 2.3: Delivery rates for opinions of CoR and EESC 2004–2010
(type of legislation)
23
Table 2.4: Delivery rates for opinions of CoR and EESC 2004–2010
(type of initiative)
25
Table 3.1: Pairwise correlations between variants of the dependent
variable
35
Table 4.1: Overview of the hypotheses
59
Table 5.1: The complete sender-receiver model
65
Table 5.2: The sender-receiver model split into senders and receivers
77
Table 5.3: CoR and EESC models
81
Table 5.4: EP and Council models
83
Table 6.1: Characteristics of the case studies
90
Table 6.2: Amendments suggested by the EESC and the CoR (ECI)
93
Table 6.3: Reflection of the CoR’s recommendations in the final
policy (ECI)
97
Table 6.4: Reflection of the EESC’s recommendations in the final
policy (ECI)
101
Table 6.5: Reflection of the EESC and CoR amendments in the final
policy (ECI)
103
Table 6.6: Amendments suggested by the EESC and the CoR (Postal)
117
Table 6.7: Reflection of the EESC’s recommendations in the final
policy (Postal)
118
List of Figures and Tables
ix
Table 6.8: Reflection of the CoR’s recommendations in the final
policy (Postal)
122
Table 6.9: Reflection of the CoR’s and EESC’s amendments in the final
policy (Postal)
128
Table 6.10: Amendments suggested by the EESC and the CoR (EGTC)
140
Table 6.11: Reflection of the CoR’s recommendations in the final
policy (EGTC)
141
Table 6.12: Reflection of the EESC’s recommendations in the final
policy (EGTC)
145
Table 6.13: Reflection of the CoR’s and EESC’s amendments in the
final policy (EGTC)
147
Table 7.1: Overview of findings
166
Appendix A: Quantitative Analysis – Descriptive Statistics
179
Appendix B: Quantitative Analysis – OLS Regressions
181
Appendix C: Quantitative Analysis – OLOGIT Models with DV2
190