Conference Contribution Details
Mandatory Fields
Costello, R; Thomson, R
Political Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference
The Policy Impact of Rapporteurs in the European Parliament
Cork
2006
()
0
Optional Fields
20-OCT-06
22-OCT-06
                          

 This paper examines the policy impact of committee rapporteurs in the European Parliament EP) in two respects. First, we examine the influence of committee rapporteurs on the EP’s positions in legislative decision making. In particular, we focus on the positions of the Parliament relative to each of the member states in the Council of Ministers. Hypotheses are formulated on the impact of the nationality and party affiliations of rapporteurs. These are tested using a large dataset containing information on the policy positions of the Parliament and member states on 70 legislative proposals. We find that the EP’s positions are significantly closer to the positions of the home member states of the rapporteurs. Second, we examine the impact of committee rapporteurs on the EP’s bargaining success. In particular, we focus on the distance between the Parliament and final decision outcomes, controlling for the extremity of the Parliament’s positions. Hypotheses are formulated on the impact of rapporteurs’ party affiliations and general policy extremity, and tested using information from the same dataset. We find that the EP has more bargaining success in relation to the Council when its rapporteurs are relatively moderate.