The Evolution of the European Council. Periods of Generations of Leaders

Introduction: Following the creation of the European Council in 1974, all generations of European leaders used this institution to deal with concrete problems they were facing, and to help search for opportunities to keep and – where possible – to extend their influence and power over all aspects of the multilevel game. However, the political and economic contexts of their work have changed dramatically, in particular following the historic watershed moment in 1989, and the subsequent entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993. Like all attempts to understand historical developments, this paper faces the methodological challenge of dealing with the issues of continuity and trends as well as of significant changes in the activities, agreements and acts of the European Council: Considering that a detailed study of each of the more than 130 summit sessions is not feasible, one solution to this problem is to identify periods in the integration process (see Loth 2014; Marhold 2011; Marhold 2009; Elvert 2006). As contribution to study the history of this key institution I propose to define five periods within the forty years of existence of the European Council. Each of them focuses on generations of leading members in their respective historical contexts. As a second contribution this paper sets out to describe the institutional career of this institutionalised summitry. It shows an incremental evolution from the first summit in Paris in 1974 until the Lisbon TEU in 2009 in which the institution finally received a full status in the treaty

Enhancing ‘Enhanced Cooperation’: constraints and opportunities of an inflexible flexibility clause. College of Europe Policy Brief #1.19, March 2019

> In the framework of Enhanced Cooperation in the EU less than a handful of policy projects have been realised so far. > Procedural and substantive bottlenecks in the relevant Treaty provisions streamline the framework’s application towards special legislative procedure in the area of Justice and Home Affairs. > The framework can substantially be improved by: > changing the incentive structure that Enhanced Cooperation is embedded in; > reducing the complexity in the realm of ‘subgroup integration’ in the EU (especially by integrating PESCO into the Enhanced Cooperation framework); > strengthening the role of the European Parliament in the respective procedures

Fifteen into one?: The European Union and its member states

The European Union and the role of member states is currently one of the major topics of current political debate and academic discourse. The evolution of the political system in Brussels and developments within the individual member states promise new insights into the European integration process. This book provides a country-by-country analysis of how European policy is made and applied. Its central focus is the involvement of national institutions in European policy-making: governments, parliaments, sub-national governments, the courts and public administrations. Who participates at which stage of the European Union's policy cycle and how do national institutions and non-state actors interact and fit into the Union's system? The contributors show how member states have adapted their institutional structures in different ways to European integration, especially since the Maastricht Treaty. The editors' introduction argues that the extent and intensity of institutional interaction between the EU and its member states have led to a 'system of institutional fusion'. This timely book is a comprehensive study yet of European policy-making at national level and is aimed at scholars of integration studies and comparative politics

Jean Monnet - Mensch und Methode: überschätzt und überholt?

'Das Wirken und die Wirkungen von Jean Monnet sind in Gemeinschaftszirkeln allgegenwärtig: es gibt kaum Memoiren führender Politiker der Nachkriegszeit, in denen keine Begegnungen mit Jean Monnet geschildert werden, kaum eine politische Rede, in der seine Methode nicht diskutiert wird. Doch reicht seine Bedeutung über die des historischen Weichenstellers hinaus? Der Autor rückt die sogenannte Methode Monnet in den Mittelpunkt und analysiert ihre strategischen Merkpunkte. Er stellt jedoch nicht nur wesentliche Elemente der Methode vor, sondern betont auch ihre Relevanz für künftige integrationsstrategische Überlegungen gerade nach Nizza.' (Autorenreferat)'Jean Monnet's work and impact are omnipresent in Community circles: there are hardly any memoirs of leading post-world-war politicians of the post-world-war period that do not describe encounters with Jean Monnet, hardly any political speeches that do not discuss his method. But does his significance go beyond a historical figure that set the stage for new developments? The author focuses on the so-called Monnet method and analyses its main strategic aspects. He not only presents the main elements of the method, but also emphasises its relevance for strategic reflections on future integration, especially after Nice.' (author's abstract)

National parliaments: their emerging control over the European Council

The European Council plays an increasingly important role in the governance of the European Union. In addition, since 2008, Euro summits have taken place at level of the heads of state and government of the member states whose currency is the euro. This Policy Paper analyses the emerging control over European Council meetings and Euro summits that is exercised by national parliaments. The authors examine at what point in time the 27 national parliaments control, whether control takes place in committee or in the plenary, how intensively that control is exercised, and what model of control the individual national parliaments follow. This Policy Paper measures the weaknesses of the parliamentary control over the European Council. It is still largely organised within domestic frontiers and national parliaments have only adapted to European Council meetings and Euro summits in an incremental and path-dependent way: The control mechanisms of national parliaments for European Union politics had been designed for legislation, not for decisions taken by the heads of state or government. But national parliaments have started to devote time and energy to controlling European Council meetings and Euro summits: Between March 2011 and March 2012 there were 109 plenary debates and 180 committee meetings that dealt with European Council meetings or Euro summits in the 27 member states. On the basis of this data, the authors identify seven models of parliamentary control: the “limited control model”, the “Europe as usual” model, the “expert model”, the “public forum”, the “government accountability” model, the “policy maker”, and “full europeanisation”. The differences between member states are rooted in their visions of what the role of a parliament in a democracy should be. Besides the technical aspects, the motivations of and incentives for MPs (to actually use the existing channels of control) also play an important role. In their recommendations the authors call for better involvement of national parliaments in the control of the European Council meetings and Euro summits: an increased awareness of the issues at stake and of the functioning of the European Council meetings and Euro summits. It is essential to combine room for manoeuvre of the head of state or government with deeply informed oversight by national parliaments. Within national parliaments, transparency and openness could be enhanced for meetings in committee and mere declarations of the government could become politically more salient and be upgraded following the question time pattern. Practices of national governments should allow for timely and complete information as well as for an inclusion of the chair of the European affairs committee. Finally, the authors propose the establishment of a genuine multi-level parliamentary cooperation: to deepen the link between the national parliaments and the European Parliament and to create an inter-parliamentary conference for budgetary and economic issues on the basis of Article 13 TSCG, following the example of the inter-parliamentary conference for CFSP and CSDP

Nach dem EU-Gipfel in Brüssel: Wie sieht die Zukunft Europas aus?

Am 21. und 22. Juni 2007 trafen sich die Staats- und Regierungschefs der 27 Mitgliedstaaten der Europäischen Union. Das Ergebnis des 35-stündigen Verhandlungsprozesses bewertet Werner Weidenfeld, Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung, Universität München, durchaus positiv. Seiner Meinung nach wurde mehr erreicht als viele erwartet hatten. Europa habe es noch einmal geschafft, nicht in den Abgrund des Scheitern zu stürzen, in den es während des Gipfels mehrfach habe blicken müssen. Im Vergleich zum geltenden Vertrag von Nizza sei die demokratische Legitimation und Handlungsfähigkeit erheblich gestärkt sowie weltpolitisches Handeln ermöglicht worden. Dafür habe die deutsche Ratspräsidentschaft eine feste Grundlage geschaffen. Wolfgang Wessels und Verena Schäfer, Universität zu Köln, sehen die Ergebnisse skeptischer. In dem Textentwurf für den Reformvertrag werde ein »doppeltes Dilemma« der Mitgliedstaaten deutlich, das von Beginn an den Ausbau des EU-Systems geprägt habe. Als »Ebenendilemma« könne man die Situation bezeichnen, dass nationalstaatliche Probleme nur durch die Übertragung von nationalstaatlichen Zuständigkeiten bzw. die Abgabe der De-jure-Souveränität an die europäische Ebene zu lösen seien. Das »Entscheidungsdilemma« bestehe darin, dass eine effiziente Problemlösung auf europäischer Ebene mit der Abgabe von nationalstaatlicher Handlungsautonomie verbunden sei. Auch dieser Reformvertrag biete keine eindeutige Antwort auf die Frage nach der Zukunft Europas im Sinne einer »klar formulierten Finalität«. Für Andreas Maurer, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Berlin, deutet vieles auf verstärkte Flexibilisierungs-, aber auch Fragmentierungstendenzen hin. Zusätzlich werden die »Abdriftungstendenzen« einiger EU-Mitgliedstaaten durch die eingetretene Schwächung der Europäischen Kommission noch verstärkt.Verfassungsreform, Europäische Integration, Wirtschaftsunion, Europapolitik, EU-Staaten