The role of the Commission of the European Union: Creating external coherence from internal diversity

Presidency (see Chapter 5 by Oberthür and Dupont). The Commission’s cognitive powers should also not be underestimated because climate change policy often requires a high degree of technical expertise. The Commission’s structural powers (within the internal EU climate change policy-making process) are largely limited to its formal roles as the initiator of EU legislation and guardian of the EU Treaties during the implementation phase.