State committee (Arab Union)

A state committee (Arabic: لجنة الدولة lajnat ad-dawlah; pl. لجنات الدولة lajnāt ad-dawlah) is a type of executive department of the federal government of the Arab Union.

Like ministries, state committees are directly subordinate to the Council of Ministers, the top executive body and Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the Arab Union; each state committee chairperson is thus a member of the Council of Ministers like the ministers who head particular ministries.

Unlike ministries, however, which are assigned administration of a well-defined responsibility of state administration or economy which practically never overlap, state committees are instead defined by a specific mission or goal, which despite often involving a significant degree of independent activity can often overlap with the jurisdictional areas of responsibility of one or more ministries.

State committees are exclusively federal in nature, with republican executive governments only overseeing ministries. However, many state committees, despite answering to the federal government, have subordinate subcommittees in each republic responsible for carrying out the committee's responsibilities in that particular republic, which usually report to the respective republican government in addition to the committee chairperson who is part of the federal cabinet (the Council of Ministers).