Mechanisms for control of the European Commission’s exercise of implementing powers

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 on rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

The regulation lays down the rules for the control by European Union (EU) Member States of the exercise by the European Commission of its implementing powers (Article 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
This control takes place by means of what is known in EU jargon as the ‘comitology’ system, which refers to the committees that the Commission consults on draft implementing acts. These committees are composed of representatives of the Member States, chaired by the Commission, and they follow different operating procedures depending on the relevant basic act. Comitology is not compulsory for all implementing acts.

KEY POINTS

The regulation lays down two procedures for controlling the Commission’s exercise of its implementing powers (granted by the legislator): the examination procedure and the advisory procedure.

The examination procedure is mainly used for:

implementing acts of general scope;
implementing acts with a potentially significant impact or referring to certain policy fields (e.g. agriculture, fisheries, environment, health, common commercial policy and taxation).

Commission implementing acts must receive the support of a qualified majority (a weighted system of voting where 15 of the 27 Member States must vote in favour and these votes must represent at least 65% of the EU’s total population) of the committee. If the committee gives an unfavourable opinion, the Commission may submit the draft act to an appeal committee to see whether the examination of the measure should continue, or to amend the text. If the appeal committee rules against the Commission’s proposed implementing acts, the Commission cannot adopt the draft implementing act.

The advisory procedure is generally used for all other implementing acts (e.g. individual acts in the field of culture). The Commission decides on its own whether to adopt the proposed act and must take the ‘utmost account’ of the opinion of the committee, which is adopted by a simple majority (a majority of those voting).

Right of scrutiny of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union: when a basic legislative act has been adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure (the most common decision-making procedure, covering the majority of policy areas, and in which the Parliament and the Council have equal weight), the Parliament or the Council may, at any time, inform the Commission that it considers the proposed implementing act to exceed the powers conferred on the Commission. In such cases, the Commission must review the draft implementing act and decide to maintain, amend or withdraw it. For transparency reasons, the Commission keeps a register of committee proceedings (the comitology register) that contains a list of all comitology committees, along with background information and documents relating to the work of each committee.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since 1 March 2011.

BACKGROUND

Article 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union allows the Commission to adopt implementing measures for a legal act when uniform conditions of implementation are necessary. The basic legal act must explicitly confer on the Commission the power to adopt implementing acts.

According to the Commission’s latest report on developments in regard to the comitology system, there were 322 committees that cover virtually all of the EU’s competences (agriculture, environment, transport, health and consumers, etc.). In 2022, they held 673 meetings, carried out 1,675 written procedures and delivered 2,048 opinions.

For further details, see:

Comitology (European Commission)
Comitology register (European Commission).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, pp. 13–18).