ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the adoption of new policy instruments of the European Union (EU) also emanate from everyday decision-making. Changes in EU policies are not only the consequences of ‘grand moments’ of treaty and institutional changes. In order to identify and explain changes in everyday decision-making, one should complement the traditional strategic bargaining perspective on decision-making with a constructivist view on discourse or language as sources of change. With the insights of both constructivists and communication theorists, this study focuses on the identification of conditions and occurrences of deliberation in the daily running of decision-making in the EU that allow for changes facilitating the adoption of new policy instruments. In this light a study of two cases will be presented of which each has taken place in a different institutional setting. The main analysis of this study is on the drafting process of the Framework Decision on the European Evidence Warrant of 2008. The findings of this analysis will be compared to findings of another analysis. It concerns the negotiations on the Council Decision of 2008 regarding access for consultation of the Visa Information System by law enforcement authorities. Analysis of both cases learned that in certain circumstances instances of deliberation and ensuing progress towards a more reasoned understanding actually occurred.
