Unless Juncker and Schulz can co-operate, the EU will lose an important opportunity for democratisation

Candidates have been put forward for the next President of the European Commission in advance of the European elections on 22-25 May. One of the key unanswered questions over this process, however, is whether national governments will agree to propose one of these candidates rather than exercising their right to pick an alternative. Pier Domenico Tortola writes that given the likely makeup of the Parliament, it is unlikely any candidate will hold a majority without the two main parliamentary groups – those of the European People’s Party and the Party of European Socialists – forming a ‘grand coalition’. Whether or not these two groups can agree to co-operate will have important consequences on the future institutional setup of the Union

The Politicization of the European Central Bank:What is it, and how to study it?

The politicization of the European Central Bank (ECB) is a recurrent theme in debates on the EU after the crisis, yet it is one that still suffers from a considerable degree of vagueness. This is unfortunate as it hinders the development of useful discussions on the place and legitimacy of the ECB within Europe's institutional order. To tackle this problem, this article presents a systematic analysis of the concept of ECB politicization and an agenda for future research on this phenomenon. After reviewing existing uses of the term in the form of three dichotomies – politicization versus independence, impartiality, and convention – the article proposes an alternative, preference-based definition of politicization as a deviation from technocratic policy-making in the ECB. Building on this definition, the article then indicates three avenues for the empirical study of politicization centred, respectively, on elite interviews and surveys, the analysis of central bankers’ networks and the study of ECB language

The Power of Expertise: Gauging Technocracy in EMU Reform Negotiations

Is the European Union a technocracy? Observers and practitioners of EU politics have debated this deceptively simple question for decades, without arriving at a clear answer. To a large extent, this is due to the elusive nature of technocracy itself, a phenomenon that is hard to define with precision, and even harder to measure empirically. To tackle this problem, the article presents a novel approach to technocracy in the EU based on the study of bargaining settings, in which political and technical actors interact horizontally and simultaneously-as opposed to sequentially-thus allowing for a better appraisal of the power of experts. Using data gathered by the 'EMU Choices' project, we apply this alternative framework to the analysis of negotiations on the reform of the Economic and Monetary Union over the period 2010-15, focusing on the role of two institutional actors: the European Central Bank and the European Commission. While we find some evidence for technocracy in EMU negotiations, this has been mostly at the hands of the hybrid Commission rather than the quintessentially technical ECB. This suggests both caution in dismissing the EU as hopelessly technocratic, and the need for further research on the nature of the Commission

Differentiated Cooperation through Local Authority Networks:Challenges and Opportunities

Transnational networks of sub-national authorities are an established and growing phenomenon in Europe, where they perform a number of (soft) governance functions for their members, often in direct connection with European Union (EU) institutions. Differentiation is an inherent characteristic of sub-national authority networks, which is nonetheless still largely unexplored. Building on original empirical data, we identify three dimensions of differentiation generated by networks – ‘insider-outsider’, ‘compound’ and ‘multi-level’ differentiation – and discuss their implications for the efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy of these organisations. Based on our analysis, we also sketch some avenues for future research connecting the national and sub-national dimensions of differentiation in Europe

Chapter 35 Differentiation at the local level

Transnational networks of sub-national authorities are an established and growing phenomenon in Europe, where they perform a number of (soft) governance functions for their membership, often in direct connection with European Union institions. This chapter examines networks from the angle of institutional differentiation – an inherent trait of these organisations – in order to expand the analysis of this phenomenon beyond its state-centric confines. The chapter also adds to the study of (differentiated) integration more traditionally defined, both by analogy and insofar as networks are part and parcel of the EU’s system of multi-level governance. Building on original empirical data, we identify three dimensions of differentiation generated by networks – “insider-outsider”, “compound”, and “multi-level” differentiation – and discuss their implications for the efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy of networks’ actions. Based on our analysis, we also sketch some avenues for future research connecting the national and sub-national dimensions of differentiation in Europe

A “More Political” Commission? Reassessing EC Politicization through Language

This article contributes to the study of the European Commission's (EC) politicization by examining this phenomenon from the angle of communication. We elaborate a novel approach based on two linguistic indicators – charisma and technicality – which we then apply through a content analysis of 8,947 speeches delivered by Commission members between 1999 and 2019. Contrary to the narrative of an ever more political Commission, we find that the linguistic politicization of the EC decreased over the period under exam, reaching its nadir during Jean-Claude Juncker's presidential term (2014–19). Our findings raise the question of whether language is yet another ordinary dimension of politicization, or rather it is used strategically by the Commission to underplay its underlying politicization as measured in more traditional institutional, policy, and individual terms. Either way, our study highlights the multi-faceted nature of the politicization concept, and the need for deeper and more nuanced analyses of it

Differentiation from Below:Sub-national Authority Networks as a Form of Differentiated Cooperation

Transnational networks of local authorities are an established and growing phenomenon in Europe, where they perform a number of (soft) governance functions for their membership, often in direct connection with EU institions. This paper examines networks from the angle of institutional differentiation – an inherent trait of these organisations – in order to expand the analysis of this concept beyond its state-centric confines. The paper also adds to the study of (differentiated) integration more traditionally defined, both by analogy and insofar as networks are part and parcel of the Union’s system of multi-level governance. Building on original empirical data, we identify three dimensions of differentiation generated by networks – insider-outsider, compound and multi-level differentiation – and discuss their implications for the efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy of networks’ actions. Based on our analysis, we formulate three broad recommendations for policy-makers involved in networks: first, strive for inclusion, especially of smaller and less administratively capable sub-national governments; second, improve available information on networks in order to make their landscape more efficient; third, exploit the paradiplomatic advantages of networks both outside and inside the European Union