The European Council and the Council : new intergovernmentalism and institutional change / Uwe Puetter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Puetter, Uwe, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

European Council.

Council of the European Union.

Legislative bodies--European Union countries.

Legislative bodies.

Decision making--European Union countries.

Decision making.

Intergovernmental cooperation--European Union countries.

Intergovernmental cooperation.

European Union countries.

Physical Description:

xiv, 265 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Summary:

This book offers one of the most comprehensive accounts of European Council and Council decision-making by covering two-decades of European integration from the late 1990s until the years after the Lisbon Treaty came into force. Case studies analyse the European Council, the Eurogroup, the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, the Foreign Affairs Council, and the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council as well as the role of senior coordination committees. Puetter provides a new perspective on the European Council and the Council, portraying the two institutions as embodying the new intergovernmentalism in European Union governance. The European Council and the Council shows how post-Maastricht integration is based on an integration paradox. Member states are eager to foster integration, but insist that this is done outside the community method. This applies especially to prominent new areas of European Union activity including economic governance, common foreign, security, and defence policy, and employment and social policy. The book explains how the evolution of these new areas has triggered institutional change. Policy coordination and intergovernmental agreement are identified as the main governance mechanisms with the European Council and the Council at the centre of these processes. The book features a novel analytical frame-work-deliberative intergovernmentalism-to trace institutional change following the Treaty of Maastricht. Join decision-making among member states is understood as non-legislative decision-making, which is geared towards permanent consensus seeking and direct member state involvement at all stages of the policy process. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Integration Paradox and the Rise of New Intergovernmentalism 1

1.1 The Legacy of the Maastricht Treaty 7

1.2 The Peak and End of Legislative Activism 10

1.3 Three New Areas of EU Activity and the Expansion of Policy Coordination 18

1.4 Methods Matter 25

1.5 Conclusions 30

2 Deliberative Intergovernmentalism and Institutional Change 33

2.1 The Community Method and New Intergovernmentalism 34

2.1.1 The Community Method and the Constitution of Supranational Authority 35

2.1.2 Supranationalism and Intergovernmentalism 40

2.2 The Study of New Governance, the European Council, and the Council So Fat 44

2.2.1 The Debate about New Modes of Governance 44

2.2.2 The European Council and the Council as Forums of Intergovernmental Decision-making 48

2.3 A New Analytical Framework 55

2.3.1 The Underlying Institutional Dynamic 57

2.3.2 Institutional Engineering 61

2.4 Conclusions 65

3 The European Council: the New Centre of Political Gravity 68

3.1 Acquiring a New Role in the Policy-making Process 69

3.2 The Matrix of European Council Decision-making 74

3.3 Codifying Change: from Maastricht to Lisbon 78

3.4 The Agenda 91

3.5 The Core Working Method: Participation, Secrecy, and Access to Dialogue 98

3.6 The Introduction of New Working Methods: Extraordinary, Informal, and Single-issue Meetings 104

3.7 A Full-time President 111

3.8 The Euro Summits 126

3.9 The European Council Conclusions as an Instrument for Exercising Leadership 133

3.10 Conclusions 141

4 The Council: from Law-making to Policy Coordination 148

4.1 Reforming the Council 150

4.2 The Eurogroup and the ECOFIN Council 155

4.2.1 Working Methods: the Emphasis on Informal Policy Dialogue 156

4.2.2 The Presidency Regime 164

4.2.3 Enlargement and Multi-speed Integration 167

4.3 The Foreign Affairs Council 171

4.3.1 Refocusing the Agenda 171

4.3.2 Working Methods: Participation Regime and Gymnich Meetings 174

4.3.3 The Role of the High Representative as Chair 177

4.4 The EPSCO Council 180

4.4.1 The Core Working Method: a Hybrid and a Mega Council 181

4.4.2 Relations with ECOFIN and the European Council 186

4.5 The Proliferation of Expert Committees and the New Bureaucratic Intergovernmental Infrastructure 189

4.5.1 The EFC and the Eurogroup Working Group 192

4.5.2 The PSC 195

4.5.3 The Policy Unit and the EEAS 202

4.5.4 Other Socio-economic Governance Committees 207

4.6 Running the Council 210

4.6.1 The General Affairs Council 211

4.6.2 The Rotating Presidency of the Council 213

4.6.3 COREPER 217

4.7 Conclusions 219

5 New Intergovernmentalism and the Future of European Integration 226

5.1 The Role of Supranational Actors 227

5.2 The Challenge of Democratic Control 235

5.3 Deliberative intergovernmentalism and Integration Theory 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780198716242

0198716249

OCLC:

893648978