ABSTRACT

The European Commission is an organization which has come to fascinate or repulse a range of national politicians, journalists and social scientists. In contrast to the prevailing image of the Commission as a 'bureaucrat's paradise', however, and by using the results of original research, this book deliberately sets out to investigate this organization's relationship to politics. It does so first by developing a variety of case-studies (health, development aid, preparations for Eastern enlargement, etc.) as a means of studying the relationships, networks and interdependencies which link commissioners and Commission officials to national politicians, civil servants and interest groups. Second, by looking in detail at how the Commission publicizes its work, notably through producing public information and liaising with the media, fresh light is shone upon the complex question of the Commission's legitimacy. Politics and the European Commission provides a framework for generating new information about, and interpretations of, the power struggles at the heart of the EU.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

part |2 pages

Part I Actors, institutions and interdependence

chapter 1|13 pages

Doing politics and pretending not to

The Commission’s role in distributing aid to Eastern Europe

chapter 2|17 pages

The politics of collegiality

The non-portfolio dimension

chapter 3|20 pages

The Secretariat General of the European Commission, 1958–2003

A singular institution

chapter 6|21 pages

Institutionalizing public health in the European Commission

The thrills and spills of politicization

part |2 pages

Part II The media, the Commission and its legitimacy

chapter 7|15 pages

Was it really just poor communication?

A socio-political reading of the Santer Commission’s resignation

chapter 9|14 pages

Advertising Europe

The production of public information by the Commission

chapter 10|16 pages

Publicizing the euro

A case of interest maximization and internal fragmentation of the Commission

chapter 11|15 pages

Where is he now?

The Delors legacy