The committee system: Powers, appointments and report allocation

The European Parliament (EP), like the US Congress, is often depicted as a parliament with strong committees and weak parties. This article compares the powers of the EP's committees with their counterparts in national legislatures and examines the role of party groups in the committees. Analysing the principles guiding the appointments to committees, the selection of committee chairs, and the distribution of reports within the committees, we show that national party delegations inside the transnational groups are often key gatekeepers in the division of spoils within the groups, with group leaders restricted in their ability to direct the actions of their committee members. The distribution of reports between party groups and national delegations produces interesting variation, with the two largest groups (PES and EPP) largely in control of key reports, while the size of national parties inside the main groups is the primary factor in explaining the output of national delegations.