The Commission in EU Policy Preparation

Since the heyday of Jacques Delors, the Commission has been challenged by the rise of the European Council, the empowerment of the European Parliament and the creation of European agencies. However, while many scholars agree about the direction of change, there is disagreement about the extent to wh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of common market studies 2021-05, Vol.59 (3), p.625-642
Main Authors: Blom‐Hansen, Jens, Senninger, Roman
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
decline
Empowerment
EU political system
European Commission
Legislatures
Qualitative research
Rules
Tribunals & commissions
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Summary:Since the heyday of Jacques Delors, the Commission has been challenged by the rise of the European Council, the empowerment of the European Parliament and the creation of European agencies. However, while many scholars agree about the direction of change, there is disagreement about the extent to which the Commission's position has declined. A number of studies are sceptical, and we join this sceptical line. Our contribution is to focus on the Commission's role as a maker of both legislative and executive rules (implementing and delegated acts). These rules are all decided under complex inter‐institutional procedures. But the Commission possesses the right of initiative in all procedures. We investigate how the Commission can use this first‐mover advantage to influence EU policy. We establish a framework for understanding what strategic options the first‐mover advantage entails and provide a first empirical illustration with a qualitative analysis of ten selected Commission proposals.
ISSN:0021-9886
1468-5965
DOI:10.1111/jcms.13123