The Unexpected Winner of the Crisis: The European Commission’s Strengthened Role in Economic Governance

ABSTRACT

Since the latest financial and economic crisis took hold of the European Union (EU), its economic governance architecture has been undergoing crucial changes. Research into the institutional consequences of these reforms is still fragmented — especially with regard to the function of the European Commission. This article seeks to fill this void by analysing the supranational executive’s role in the four areas that have witnessed the most important changes: financial stability support, economic policy surveillance, coordination of national polices and supervision of the financial sector. The empirical evidence suggests that the Commission continues to be a powerful player in EU economic governance, but its primary role is changing. While its agenda-setting power is decreasing, most decisions in economic governance depend on the Commission to make them work. With more and stronger implementation competences, it may be less visible. But it is not less important. This finding qualifies the degree of intergovernmentalism in economic governance.

KEY WORDS:

• European Commission
• economic governance
• euro crisis
• intergovernmentalism

Notes

1. Börzel draws on the works of Lindberg and Scheingold (1970), Schmitter (1970) and Scharpf (2001).

2. Regulation (EU) No. 1173/2011, Regulation (EU) No. 1174/2011, Regulation (EU) No. 1175/2011, Regulation (EU) No. 1176/2011, Council Regulation (EU) No 1177/2011 and Council Directive 2011/85/EU.

3. From now on, member states can be put in the deficit procedure, when the 60% reference for the debt-to-GDP ratio is not respected, even if the deficit is below 3%. However, the assessment will take into account ‘all relevant factors and the impact of the economic cycle’ and the gap between a member state’s debt level and the 60% reference must not be reduced by 1/20th annually (on average over three years) in order to trigger the deficit procedure (European Commission 2011b).

4. The legal basis for this monitoring system is Regulation (EU) No. 1176/2011.

5. Regulation (EU) No. 473/2013 and Regulation (EU) No 472/2013.

6. Much of its substance mirrors the Six-Pack reforms and will therefore not be discussed.

7. These principles were published in June 2012 (COM (2012) 342 final).

8. These are the European Banking Authority, the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority.