ABSTRACT
The EU policy-making process can be divided into two stages: policy initiation (or agenda setting) and decision making. Traditional intergovernmental approaches to the EUwhich assert the primacy of states in the political process - focus their attention on the second, or decision-making, stage in which the Council reads, negotiates and votes on Commission proposals. Intergovernment-alists do not explore the first stage of agenda setting, since they see this task as having been delegated to the Commission through the member states’ authority. This assumption is problematic, even though it seems to simplify what is in reality a very complex policy-making process. While it is true that the Commission often responds to member state recommendations, these recommendations are often very general in nature. The Commission frequently takes the initiative of turning these vague policy direction statements from the European Council or Council of Ministers into specific European policy.2 The Commission plays a much larger role in
agenda setting than simply taking the member states’ suggestions and turning them into policy proposals. The policy initiation stage is, in the opinion of both scholars and EU officials, the most crucial stage of the policy process.3 If it is indeed true that approximately 80% of a policy is set before it reaches the Council, then determining which actors help shape policies as they are formulated is an important key to explaining EU policy making.4
