Strengthening the European Commission's budgetary and economic surveillance capacity since Greece and the euro area crisis: a study of five Directorates-General

ABSTRACT

Has the executive role of the European Commission changed since the euro area crisis? Intergovernmentalists point to the increased role of the member states and the Council at the expense of the Commission and other supranational institutions. This article examines how the Commission has responded to the expansion of fiscal and economic rules such as the regulations that strengthen the EU's statistical competence and the Six-Pack and Two-Pack. Based on interviews conducted with key staff, we find that these rules have created significant co-ordination, information and analytical demands on the Commission. The latter has enhanced its horizontal and vertical co-ordination efforts, prioritized staff for the Directorate-Generals conducting surveillance activities, added DGs to these efforts, and reorganized their organizational structures to promote a deeper understanding of the member states’ fiscal and economic policies. Using a principal–agent, approach this article explains how the Commission has increased its role in European integration process.

KEY WORDS:

• Euro area crisis
• European Semester
• Eurostat
• financial crisis
• Greece
• principal–agent

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This article forms part of a larger project entitled ‘Europe's Sovereign Debt Crisis: Lessons for European Integration’, which has received generous support from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), grant number: 410-2011-0405 (Amy Verdun). Funding for this research was also provided by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences research programme at the University of Virginia. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 21st International Conference of Europeanists (CES), Washington, DC, USA, 14–16 March 2014 and at 14th Biennial European Union Studies Association (EUSA) Conference, 5–7 March 2015. The authors thank participants of those conferences (in particular Dermot Hodson, Benedicta Marzinotto, Elliot Posner, Waltraud Schelkle and Wolfgang Streeck), the anonymous referees, and Jeremy Richardson and Berthold Rittberger for comments. The authors thank the Commission staff for generously having given their time. Some of the research for this article was carried out whilst Amy Verdun was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Wassenaar.

Notes

1 Interview with Walter Radermacher, 23 November 2010.

2 Interview with Eurostat official, 23 November 2010.

3 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/10186/758154/Organisation-chart-EN.pdf.

4 Interview with DG SG official, 4 April 2013.

5 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/sg_org_chart_en.pdf.

6 Interview with DG SG official, 4 April 2013.

7 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/economy_finance/organisation/ecfin_org_chart_en.pdf.

8 Interview with DG ECFIN official, 4 April 2013.

9 Interview with DG EMPL official, 15 May 2013.

10 http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=656.

11 http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/common/about/structure/organi_en.pdf.

12 Interview with DG SG official, 24 June 2014.

13 Interview with DG SG official, 24 June 2014.

14 Interview with DG TAXUD official, 23 May 2013.

15 Interview with DG EMPL official, 18 June 2013.

16 Interview with DG SG official, 24 June 2014.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James D. Savage

Biographical note

James D. Savage is professor of politics and public policy at the University of Virginia.

Amy Verdun

Amy Verdun is professor of political science at the University of Victoria, BC.