IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v11y2010i2p219-240.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The policy impact of leadership in committees: Rapporteurs’ influence on the European Parliament’s opinions

Author

Listed:
  • Rory Costello

    (University of Twente, The Netherlands, r.d.costello@utwente.nl)

  • Robert Thomson

    (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

Abstract

What impact do leaders in the European Parliament’s (EP) committees have on the EP’s opinions? This study formulates and tests expectations about the conditions under which rapporteurs influence the EP’s opinions and also about what factors motivate that influence. In line with the informational theory of legislative committees, the most important factor affecting the EP’s opinion is the policy position of the median MEP, not a characteristic of the rapporteur. Nonetheless, the evidence shows that rapporteurs influence the EP’s opinions when legislative proposals are subject to early agreements under the co-decision procedure and when the consultation procedure applies. Rapporteurs’ influence is motivated primarily by national interests, rather than by the interests of their EP party groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Rory Costello & Robert Thomson, 2010. "The policy impact of leadership in committees: Rapporteurs’ influence on the European Parliament’s opinions," European Union Politics, , vol. 11(2), pages 219-240, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:11:y:2010:i:2:p:219-240
    DOI: 10.1177/1465116510353459
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116510353459
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1465116510353459?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abdul G. Noury, 2002. "Ideology, Nationality and Euro-Parliamentarians," European Union Politics, , vol. 3(1), pages 33-58, March.
    2. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:385-409 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:127-151 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Abdul Ghafar Noury & Simon Hix & Gérard Roland, 2007. "Democratic politics in the European Parliament," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7744, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    6. Raya Kardasheva, 2009. "The Power to Delay: The European Parliament's Influence in the Consultation Procedure," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 385-409, March.
    7. Virginie Mamadouh & Tapio Raunio, 2003. "The Committee System: Powers, Appointments and Report Allocation," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 333-351, April.
    8. König, Thomas & Lindberg, Bjorn & Lechner, Sandra & Pohlmeier, Winfried, 2007. "Bicameral Conflict Resolution in the European Union: An Empirical Analysis of Conciliation Committee Bargains," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(2), pages 281-312, April.
    9. Pierpaolo Settembri & Christine Neuhold, 2009. "Achieving Consensus Through Committees: Does the European Parliament Manage?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 127-151, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nikoleta Yordanova, 2011. "The European Parliament: In need of a theory," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(4), pages 597-617, December.
    2. Rory Costello & Robert Thomson, 2011. "The nexus of bicameralism: Rapporteurs’ impact on decision outcomes in the European Union," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(3), pages 337-357, September.
    3. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:48:y:2010:i::p:811-833 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Matteo Cavallaro & David Flacher & Massimo Angelo Zanetti, 2018. "Radical right parties and European economic integration: Evidence from the seventh European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(2), pages 321-343, June.
    5. Steffen Hurka, 2013. "Changing the output: The logic of amendment success in the European Parliament’s ENVI Committee," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(2), pages 273-296, June.
    6. Bjørn Høyland & Indraneel Sircar & Simon Hix, 2009. "Forum Section," European Union Politics, , vol. 10(1), pages 143-152, March.
    7. Thomas Jensen & Thomas Winzen, 2012. "Legislative negotiations in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 13(1), pages 118-149, March.
    8. Busby, Amy and Kheira, Belkacem, 2013. "Coping with the information overload': An exploration of assistants' backstage role in the everyday practice of European Parliament politics," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 17, July.
    9. Nicola Maaser & Alexander Mayer, 2016. "Codecision in context: implications for the balance of power in the EU," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 46(1), pages 213-237, January.
    10. Nikoleta Yordanova, 2009. "The Rationale behind Committee Assignment in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 10(2), pages 253-280, June.
    11. repec:ulb:ulbcvp:p0030 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. David Marshall, 2015. "Explaining Interest Group Interactions with Party Group Members in the European Parliament: Dominant Party Groups and Coalition Formation," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 311-329, March.
    13. Léa Roger & Simon Otjes & Harmen van der Veer, 2017. "The financial crisis and the European Parliament: An analysis of the Two-Pack legislation," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(4), pages 560-580, December.
    14. James Lo, 2018. "Dynamic ideal point estimation for the European Parliament, 1980–2009," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 229-246, July.
    15. Steffen Hurka & Maximilian Haag & Constantin Kaplaner, 2023. "Proposal complexity and report allocation in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 24(2), pages 307-326, June.
    16. Christophe Crombez & Pieterjan Vangerven, 2014. "Procedural models of European Union politics: Contributions and suggestions for improvement," European Union Politics, , vol. 15(2), pages 289-308, June.
    17. Fang-Yi Chiou & Silje SL Hermansen & Bjørn Høyland, 2020. "Delegation of committee reports in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(2), pages 233-254, June.
    18. Javier Arregui, 2016. "Determinants of Bargaining Satisfaction Across Policy Domains in the European Union Council of Ministers," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(5), pages 1105-1122, September.
    19. David Marshall, 2010. "Who to lobby and when: Institutional determinants of interest group strategies in European Parliament committees," European Union Politics, , vol. 11(4), pages 553-575, December.
    20. Mathieu Vieira, 2011. "Does a European Party System Exist ?A Conceptual Framework for Analysis," Cahiers du CEVIPOL/Brussels Working papers 131399, Centre d'étude de la vie politique (CEVIPOL) of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
    21. Steffen Hurka & Michael Kaeding & Lukas Obholzer, 2015. "Learning on the Job? EU Enlargement and the Assignment of (Shadow) Rapporteurships in the European Parliament," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(6), pages 1230-1247, November.
    22. Frank M Häge & Nils Ringe, 2020. "Top-down or bottom-up? The selection of shadow rapporteurs in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 21(4), pages 706-727, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:11:y:2010:i:2:p:219-240. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.