ABSTRACT
Research on the European Union has been largely preoccupied with the institutional behaviour and interaction of EU institutions, neglecting their internal dynamics, operation and culture, and focusing instead on their constitutional powers (Cassese and della Cananea 1992). This effort has contributed greatly to our understanding of the EU as un objet politique non identifié, enabling us to answer with some confidence important questions, such as ‘who governs?’ and ‘where does power lie?’ However, formal powers are only part of the story. Detailed investigation of the Community administration and of individual administrative units in particular may add further insight (see, for example, Wilks 1992; Cini 1996a; Ross 1995), revealing what happens in the ‘black box’ and the possibility of leading us to a deeper understanding of the processes, culture and thinking that underlie action on the part of the organization. Yet the internal workings of key parts of the machinery, including even such crucial bodies as the Secretariat General (SG) of the Commission, remain curiously unexplored. The pivotal position of the SG is routinely acknowledged (see, for example, Stevens and Stevens 2001), as is the influence of its first Secretary General, Emile Noël,2 but there has as yet been no systematic investigation of its development, responsibilities and operation – a serious shortcoming given its centrality to the work of the Commission and the Community system more generally.
