3 - Expert Neutrality

Question 1

Chalmers

(Expert groups EU)

Answer 1

• Expert groups provide interest organisations privileged access to the crucial pre-legislative stages of the EU’s policymaking process.
• Indeed, even the Commission (2002) acknowledges the inherent danger of expert groups being co-opted by narrow, vested interests.
• Expertise is not value-neutral and so-called experts can serve political and self-interested ends

Question 2

Marshall

(Do rapporteurs receive independent expert policy advice? Indirect lobbying via the European Parliament’s committee secretariat)

Answer 2

Secretariat officials play an often important role in the legislative process, but rather than serving as the source of independent policy expertise, they act as conduits for the interests of entrenched policy actors. As a consequence, it turns out that the independent advice sought and received by rapporteurs in order to overcome policy uncertainty is, in fact, endogenous to the lobbying process that they seek to illuminate.

This suggests that there may be only limited opportunities for unbiased expert knowledge to enter the legislative process during the EP’s draft report stage.