Abstract
The role of technocratic and scientific expertise in EU governance is contested. This article examines the degree of involvement of scientists in EU decision making and the conditions that affect their participation.
The study uses a large data set on the European Commission’s expert groups. We show that scientists are involved in a large portion of the expert groups under the European Commission (one third), but are rarely the only participants in such groups.
We also show that access for scientists is more likely in the early stage of policy formulation and that it is dependent on specific institutional settings.