ABSTRACT

In recent years, the failure of the constitutional process, the difficult ratification and implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, as well as the several crises affecting Europe have revitalized the debate on the nature of the European polity and the balance of powers in Brussels. This book explains the redistribution of power in the post-Lisbon EU with a focus on the European Council.

Reform of institutions and the creation of new political functions at the top of the European Union have raised fresh questions about leadership and accountability. This book argues that the European Union exhibits a political order with hierarchies, mechanisms of domination and legitimating narratives. As such, it can be understood by analysing what happens at its summit. Taking the European Council as the nexus of European political governance, contributors consider council and rotating presidencies' co-operation, rivalry and opposition. The book combines approaches through events, processes and political structures, issues and the biographical trajectories of actors and explores how the founding compromise of European integration between sovereignty and supranationality is affected by the evolving nature of this new European political model which aims to combine cooperation and integration. 

The European Council and European Governance will be of strong interest to students and scholars of European studies, political science, political sociology, public policy and international relations.

chapter 1|21 pages

Introduction

part I|50 pages

The European Council as an institution and a policy-maker

chapter 2|18 pages

The institutional consecration of the European Council

Symbolism beyond formal texts

chapter 3|10 pages

More than a prestigious spokesperson

The role of summits and the European Council in European Political Co-operation, 1969–1981

chapter 4|20 pages

EU high politics

The policy agenda of the European Council, 1975–2011

part II|54 pages

The EU presidency and the European Council – complementary or competitive?

chapter 5|19 pages

What's left of the rotating presidency?

The future of ‘national' presidencies

chapter 6|17 pages

The communautarization of the Council presidency

Intra-institutional dimensions and inter-institutional effect

chapter 7|16 pages

The Council presidency and the European Council

Towards collective leadership in the EU

part III|58 pages

Legitimization of the European Union

chapter 8|18 pages

An expectation–outcome-gap writ large

The Felipe González Reflection Group revisited

chapter 9|20 pages

Legitimacy in numbers?

Communicative aspects of the post-Lisbon EU