Agenda-setting by the European Commission. Seeking public opinion?

Figures & data

Table 1. Topics addressed in Eurobarometer mapped on division of competencies.

	No. of special EBs since Lisbon competence level achieved	No. of special EBs prior to Lisbon competence level	No. of special EBs per area in total	Level of competence since roughly
Exclusive competences of European Union
Competition	0	0	0	1958
Common Commercial Policy (External trade )	3	0	3	1958
Conservation of marine biological resources	0	0	0	2009
Customs union	0	0	0	1958
Monetary policy	6	0	6	1993 ECU: 1958
Shared competences
Agriculture and fisheries.	27	0	27	1958
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice	37	2	39	1993
Consumer protection	13	2	15	1993
Development co-operation and humanitarian aid	18	0	18	1958
Economic, social and territorial cohesion;	4	0	4	1958
Energy	2	12	14	2009 Nuclear: 1958
Environment	18	2	20	1987
Internal market	21	0	21	1958
Public health as defined in TFEU	23	6	29	1993
Research, technological development and space	28	2	30	1987
Social policy, as defined in TFEU (social regulation)	6	0	6	1958
Transport	8	0	8	1958
Specific arrangements
Common foreign and security policy	6	1	7	1993 Defence: 2003
Co-ordination of economic policies	6	1	7	1993
Co-ordination of employment policies	5	3	8	1999
Co-ordination of social policy	7	5	12	1999
National competencies – EU supports
Civil protection	1	1	2	2009
Culture	3	0	3	1993
Education	2	3	5	2009
Protection and improvement of human health	3	6	9	2009
Sport	1	3	4	2009
Tourism	0	2	2	2009
Vocational training	1	0	1	1993
Youth	0	2	2	2009
Exclusive competencies member states
Housing and urban development^a	0	0	0	n.a
Public lands and water management^a	0	0	0	n.a

Source: European Commission (1970–2014), own calculation, total: 303.

Note: We focused on the 367 special EBs that are commissioned by the European Commission (in general or by a specific DG). However, 40 special EBs are too general to be meaningfully coded into one of the categories of the agenda setting codebook, such as ‘social climate’. Also, we excluded those that focus on EU governance and government operations as such which reduces the number of observations from 327 to 320. Due to additional considerations provided in the Online Appendix, the final number analysed amounts to 303.

^a Added by authors, not mentioned in the TFEU.

Figure 1. Number of special EBs a year per Presidency. Source: European Commission (1970–2014), own calculations, total: 399.

Notes: The start and end dates of each EC Presidency were found at http://ec.europa.eu/archives/commission_2004-2009/president/history/. Eight special EBs were commissioned by the European Parliament and retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/00191b53ff/Eurobarometer.html.

Figure 2. Number of special EBs per DG. Source: European Commission (1970–2014), own calculations, total no. 352.

Figure 3. Special EBs per DG in context. Source: Special EBs: European Commission (2005–2014), own calculations, n=176; WP Planned proposals (2005–2012), Osnabrügge (2015: 245), n = 232; Expert committees (2010), Metz (2012), n = 896. Type of interest groups, Bernhagen et al. (2015: 577–8), Klüver et al. (2015: 490).

Metz, J. (2012) ‘The European Commission’s expert groups and their use in policy making’, PhD dissertation, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin.

 Google Scholar