ABSTRACT
The creation of the European Council in 1974 and its inclusion in the Single European Act have reinforced the existence of the dual logic of decision-making. The "Community" method was applied to routine decisions or those of minor importance and management of core policies; while intergovernmental decision-making was relied upon for key decisions and less integrated policies. The legitimacy of the community method was primarily rational-legal. The intergovernmental method makes national governments to mediators. The Lisbon Treaty reduced the scope of the intergovernmental method and increased the powers of EU institutions. Since the late 1990s, one must consider a new form of EU decision-making: the open method of coordination. Centralized control implies supranational institutions in a mode distinct from that of the Community method. The chapter highlights two specificities of the EU political system: the segmentation of public policy making and the "cooptation" of interlocutors by European institutions.
