Stakeholder participation in EU executive lawmaking
Possibilities for stakeholders to provide input when the European Commission adopts delegated acts
The possibility for stakeholders, as well as other interested parties and citizens, to participate in the law-making process is a vital part of any democratic system. In this report, Maria Strömvik and Jelle Verheij analyse the possibilities for stakeholders to have a say in the process when the European Commission is adopting delegated acts.
The aim of this report is to provide an exploratory overview of stakeholder participation in EU delegated acts. By creating an original database consisting of all delegated acts adopted between 2010 and 2021 (a total of 1.254 acts), conclusions are drawn about the frequency of consultations by the Commission, the frequency of stakeholder participation in the Commission’s expert groups, and the differences between various sectors or issue areas. It also aims to tentatively indicate whether these acts, in fact, seem to become more “political” over time.
The report shows that that the acts are often not subjected to the Commission's open four-week feedback periods and that more targeted consultations are used instead. It also shows that the Commission's expert groups, which meet to discuss the acts, rarely include non-governmental stakeholders. There are also large differences between different sectors, indicating that stakeholders in certain areas have a better possibility to have their say than in other areas. There is also reason to suspect that the acts increasingly contain decisions that go beyond what can be considered "technical issues" and the issue of stakeholder participation is thus becoming increasingly important.