Delegation, learning and political control: The participation of Norwegianofficials in EU committees

This article analyses the participation of Norwegian officals in EU committ ees under the Commission in the area of food policies. As a consequence of the EEA agreement between EU and EFTA, Norway is allowed to participate in these committees on more or less equal terms. My focus is on how the activi ties of the EU committees affect national policy-making. What are the conse quences of the EEA agreement and the organisation of the EU's work for the Norwegian government's ability to control and learn from the activities of the committees? The theoretical framework for analysing these questions is based on theories of organisational learning as well as ideas from agency t heory. With this as a starting point, the author looks at how Norwegian par ticipants are socialised in the EU committees, how individual learning in t he committees is related to organisational learning in the national bureauc racy, and what control mechanisms exist to assure that national officials a ct in accordance with national goals and interests. The author argues that all these questions can be related to the problem of delegation. Therefore, a major challenge for national authorities is to find effective mechanisms of control and monitoring and at the same time permit civil servants a cer tain degree of professional autonomy in order to learn fi-om the participat ion and to give the best possible professional advice. Nevertheless, the re sults show that more can be done by the Norwegian government in order to in fluence and learn from the EU decision-making process.