Access, voice and loyalty: the representation of domestic civil servants in EU committees

Abstract

This study confronts a classical problem in public administrations: the inherent conflict between political loyalty and professional autonomy built into bureaucratic structures. More recently, the EU integration process has added a new supranational dimension to this old conflict. In this article we ask to what extent national civil servants, when participating on Commission expert committees, consider themselves mainly as national government representatives, as independent experts, or merely as supranational actors. Empirically, we observe that Swedish officials attending Commission expert committees evoke supranational roles more extensively than Norwegian civil servants. However, supranational roles tend only to supplement pre- established national and sectoral roles, not replace them. Hence, both Swedish and Norwegian officials attending EU committees evoke several different role perceptions. The representational status of Norwegian and Swedish officials reflects their affiliation to Commission expert committees and domestic governmental institutions. Contrary to old neo-functional accounts, supranational roles tend to supplement pre-existing allegiances rather than replace them.