European Law Monitor

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What Is a Rapporteur?

A rapporteur could perhaps be viewed as the "liaison officer" of a committee, and has several key functions.

a) The rapporteur "reports" the findings of the European Parliamentary committee to the plenary. In that capacity their opinion carries a lot of weight. If you want to influence a proposal it is important to ensure that the rapporteur is aware of your concerns.

b)   The rapporteur's other key function is to follow what a proposal is doing as it goes through the legislative process, and to ensure the other institutions are doing what they have undertaken to do, in relation to the proposal. A common example of this would be, if the European Parliament had already seen the proposal and voted on it, if the Council were to significantly change the text of the proposal it should come back to the European Parliament to be re-checked and if necessary, voted on again.

The rapporteur therefore plays a very significant role, and if you are interested in influencing a proposal it is important that you know not only who the MEPs are on the committee dealing with the proposal, but also who the rapporteur is.

Quite often the rapporteur will also be the chairman of the committee, so if you can´t find a separate listing for the rapporteur, then note the chairman's name and details.