The Committee of the Regions: an advisory body's tortuous path to influence

Abstract

This analysis of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) sets out to assess the CoR's external impact and its internal impact since it began to function in 1994. The article addresses these questions in two parts. The first and main part focuses on the external impact of the CoR with particular emphasis on inter-institutional relations and its impact on European Union (EU) policy-making. This part is mainly based on empirical evidence from interviews with European Commission officials. The second part analyses the CoR's internal impact in terms of the interplay between its heterogeneous membership, its diverse political cultures and socialization among its members. The article concludes that while CoR's formal impact on EU policy outputs has been minimal, its real added-value lies in its unique resources which could have potentially important implications for both the subnational and supranational levels.

Key Words:

• Committee of the Regions
• EU decision-making
• EU institutions
• EU policy process
• political culture
• subnational