Expert Groups in the Field of Eurocracy

Abstract

The groups of experts convened by the European Commission have been, until recently, among the least visible actors of the government of Europe. Unlike the Council’s working groups (gathering representatives of the member states in intergovernmental negotiations) or ‘comitologycommittees’ (consisting of officials from member states who assist the Commission in its executive functions), these groups of experts are solely accountable to the Community administration (De Maillard and Robert, 2008). Focused on preparatory and exploratory work, and composed of external actors with various statuses, these groups have a strictly consultative role. However, they are active in a crucial, nearly invisible, phase of the decision-making process: the preliminary stages of problem definition. Numbering approximately 800 in number, expert groups have rarely attracted the attention of the media, apart from a few notable exceptions, for example the ‘Sapir group’ (Peuziat, 2005).