The European Commission's use of consultation during policy formulation: The effects of policy characteristics

This article asks to what extent the European Commission's use of consultation depends on policy characteristics of the proposal being formulated. It examines all consultations organized during a formulation process and looks at the number of open consultations (online consultations) as well as the number of repeat consultations (expert groups, policy fora) by the total number of consultations. Three types of use of consultation are conceptualized. A multinomial logistic regression is performed on a cross-sectional sample of 150 policy proposals adopted between 2010 and 2014. Data are triangulated from official documents. The empirical analysis indicates that the Commission's use of consultation depends on the complexity, newness, and salience of a proposal. These findings are also discussed in view of the 2015 reform of Better Regulation.