Charlotte Burns Co-decision and Inter-Committee Conflict in the European Parliament Post-Amsterdam 1 THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (EP) IS ONE OF THE THREE MAIN European Union (EU) legislative institutions. Directly elected since 1979, it provides the only strand of direct democratic accountability within the EU’s institutional structures. Although relatively neglected in the academic literature until recent times, the EP’s increased powers under the reforms of the Single European Act, and the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties have generated a bur- geoning literature covering the parliament’s internal development, 2 its growing legislative influence 3 and the ways in which it has used © The Author 2006. Journal compilation © 2006 Government and Opposition Ltd Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 1 This article draws upon research funded by ESRC Grants R00429843318 and T026271246. The author would like to thank the commission, council and EP officials and MEPs who gave so freely of their time in order to answer questions, and allowed access to archives and files and the two anonymous referees for their helpful com- ments and suggestions. 2 For example, on committees see, inter alia, S. Bowler and D. M. Farrell, ‘The Organizing of the European Parliament: Committees, Specialization and Co- ordination’, British Journal of Political Science, 25: 2 (1995), pp. 219–43; R. Whitaker, ‘Party Control in a Committee Based Legislature? The Case of the European Parlia- ment’, Journal of Legislative Studies, 7: 4 (2001), pp. 63–88; V. Mamadouh and T. Raunio, ‘The Committee System: Powers, Appointments and Report Allocation’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 41: 2 (2003), pp. 333–52. On parties and voting behaviour see, inter alia, S. Hix, ‘Legislative Behaviour and Party Competition in the EP’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 39: 4 (2001), pp. 663–88; A. Kreppel, The European Parliament and Supranational Party System, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002; R. Scully, ‘MEPs and the Building of a Parliamentary Europe’, Journal of Legislative Studies, 4: 3 (1998), pp. 92–108; G. Tsebelis, C. Jensen, A. Kalandrakis and A. Kreppel, ‘Legislative Procedures in the European Union: An Empirical Analysis’, British Journal of Political Science, 31 (2001), pp. 573–99. 3 See, inter alia, C. Crombez, B. Steunenberg and R. Corbett, ‘Understanding the EU Legislative Process – Political Scientists’ and Practitioners’ Perspectives’, European Union Politics, 1: 3 (2000), pp. 363–81; G. Garrett, G. Tsebelis and R. Corbett, ‘The EU Government and Opposition, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 230–248, 2006