Emerging Practices of Expertise Use: The Case of EU Food Regulatory Policy Making Process

Contrary to a growing importance of EU regulatory agencies (ERAs) in European decision-making, academic literature is missing a systematic explanation of how ERAs actually contend with their core tasks to provide scientific advice to EU institutions. This paper focuses on the EU agencies acting as functional problem-solvers and contributing to the regulatory decision-making processes in the fields of their expertise. The paper asks ‘when and under what conditions certain uses of expertise occur’. Relying on explanations derived from organisational and institutional theories, this research explains the diversity of expertise utilisation. The core theoretical argument is that whether the regulatory policy processes can yield credible problem-solving solutions is contingent upon both internal and external environmental conditions in which a regulatory policy-making process takes place. Theoretical arguments are empirically examined in two cases within the European Food Safety Authority. Empirical conclusions are drawn based on the analysis of key documents and interviews.